Its small things that matter
by a-writers-queue
Summary: Modern AU. Rokudou Mukuro is a recently enrolled College Student, and Hibari Kyouya is an Office worker. Rokudou likes to visit Hibari from time to time. Pairing: 1869 T for safety {previously named "Of College and Work"} Marked "complete" but subject to update with side-stories related to it.
1. Chapter 1

**_Modern AU, requested by: _****_meollaestelle_****_3 {Whoa, what just happened there, why isn't it giving the name?}_**

_**Pairing: 1869  
Ages are scrambled to the following:  
Sawada (Vice Principal of school): 23, Gokudera Hayato, Yamamoto Takeshi (College students): 19, Lambo (still in high school): 16 ½, Dokurou Chrome (same as Lambo): 16, Rokudou Mukuro (College student): 17, Hibari Kyouya (full time worker at Namimori): 21, Ryouhei Sasagawa (second year college): 20**_

_**Ask about Rokudou's age and I'll tell you, I was around 16 when I got into college, and I'm around 18 going to third year. He's one of those early graduates that come by.**_

_**Disclaimers~: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me, it respectfully belongs to Akira Amano.**_

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_**Chapter 1: of Tours and intros**_

Namimori town, always known for its good schooling reputation and good conduct, was one of the areas which caught more foreigner attention as well.

It wasn't like it was a scary place to be, but because it was such a peaceful ground, it drawn the attention of yet so much people.  
People easily got hired as staff for the schooling, or just workers who worked either full time or part time, which was why it possibly caught such a good reputation

It was like it knew which were the good people to get, and which were not.

Hibari Kyouya was recently hired as one of the workers. His great working ethic and calm demeanor had him almost, if not, instantly hired by the Principal of Namimori, Reborn. Within the few weeks that went by, it was like he was there for years.  
He loved the place like if it was his home. Rather it was better than home, where he had no one to be around with. Well actually he just liked the Principal's authority, being able to control a rambunctious group of people with the tip of his fingers.

He was usually given several tasks because of his effective skill of working efficiently at the shortest time limits that people wondered sometimes, was he even human? Did he receive help?  
It wasn't like he had people to be around here, but he had a few whom helped him out filing here and there, as he was still a new worker just hired. Hibari didn't mind asking help from his supervisor because he was just like him, and both wordlessly helped each other out.

Usually he worked with the school finance revenues, seeing how much money had been spent and doing the calculations based upon it, and right now was one the times that the financial part was finally finished as people had been sending fee statements within the past month.

Perhaps that was why Hibari had been receiving a lot of applications related to students enrolling into the school building. Once he was done with the financing, he went and took a look if any were some good kind as to him it was difficult to find a student that would catch his eyes.

To him, he found them all strange. It was like they came in a packet of rainbow flavoured candy like Skittles, each having a strange hair colour save for two of them, who was named Yamamoto Takeshi, and Lambo. Hibari looked up from the files, looking for something, then he saw his supervisor and his thought process just went "yep".

The students looked just like the staff here. This Giotto student looked like Sawada, Asari and Yamamoto, G and Gokudera, hell even Lampow looked like Lambo!

He himself looked his like a copy of his petite supervisor, Alaude. Even though the looks were betraying, he knew he was younger than the platinum blond, but no matter how much people would look at them, they'd point at Hibari asking if he was some older brother of his.

Hibari blamed the long trench coat Alaude wore. But enough of that, Hibari went back to reading the student profiles, studying each before putting them away and telling his supervisors about them.

After placing the files on Alaude's desk he went back to his office to do what he usually does best; his paperwork related to Namimori town's finance, well care and basically everything else. But then it clicked to him, is Alaude slacking? He wasn't present in his room, and it was rather unusual because he would always be there even if he was deathly ill, he still dragged his weak self all the time.

He decided to phone him, which his best friend Cavallone picked up, saying that he had Alaude sent home much to his anger. Hibari sighed, knowing he should just fill in for Alaude for today as he read his schedule.

Alright time to play teacher today. Hibari wondered, how does someone play teacher anyway? Hibari regret taking the part time teaching section. He should've just said he only wants everything within the office work instead of saying 'whatever works'

Today was orientation day for the college and university students, which was why most of the staff were required. They were supposed to lead the students around and explain to them what their courses were and how they were going to go on.

Most of the students were present for their orientation, receiving T-shirts from the College as a sign of welcoming them. For the time they had, most of it didn't go so badly, as most teachers were able to conduct good introductions.  
Hibari just read through the script Alaude had coincidently left in his office. He realized how little did he know about his supervisor, since when was he some instructor anyway? He was the quiet event arranger with Ugetsu, and did the IT management alone, sometimes getting G to do them with him, and was the guidance counsellor because he mistrusted Cavallone Dino for that job as he would screw up. A lot.

The students, however, were the things caught his attention the most. A lot of them were just people who looked like they were forced to come by and only came because there was free food and goodies they could receive, but some looked like they were genuinely interested in the subject. The student who he labelled "G #2" literally took notes of everything he was introducing with a gleam in his big eyes.

Hibari was already bothered and wanted to leave. Too much snotty nosed supposed-to-be-adults-but-acting-like-children, and they were crowding as well!  
Giotto looked the most normal out of all of them, even though his hair said otherwise, being the spiky kind, but with a level expression like his, it wasn't noticeable that he looked weird too.

However, that didn't mean he wanted to see them again, as soon as the introductions were over, he cooped himself back in his office, like if he lost his sense to breathe and took in the fresh scent of his room, finally back to living his alone life.  
He didn't have any sort of anxiety issue, but the idea was simple: he hates people. He hates the fact that people are so expressive and gross ninety percent of their lives, who just whine about how they can't do things, and how they want a break in their lives. Weak people are what exist, and now he was more disappointed about the students enrolling.

They looked weak and not ready for the education they would receive. Okay fine, maybe except the Skittles group, they only looked ready, or just ready to 'you only live once' things.

Either way, it didn't help that he was already bothered and sent an angry text to Alaude that said "don't make me do things like that again!" which he never received a text back for, other than a "do what?"

You're saying he didn't have to go cover for Alaude? Hibari had a mental facepalm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was, however a few students who couldn't attend the introduction sermons due to different reasons.

Rokudou Mukuro was one of those students who couldn't attend it because he was moving. Namimori Academy, which contained a high school and college in one, was pretty far from where he had lived, which was Kokuyo Land, which was just an abandoned building he lived in. The reason as to why he lived there was because he didn't have enough to buy an extravagant living, as he only worked part time to receive a normal amount of money which was enough for basic needs of his group of orphans he raised.  
He wasn't even the oldest among them, but he led them and took care of them as if he was. Once he graduated from Kokuyo High, he was invited to Namimori Academy because he was a good enough student for it, and there was no better college than theirs. But for going to Namimori, he was told he would have to move because it was more convenient.

Because of his scholarship, he didn't have to worry about the fees and automatically got enrolled as soon as they found him. However, he still worked enough to get money for Kakimoto Chikusa, Jyoushima Ken, Dokuro Chrome, M.M and Fran, who attended Kokuyo High.

Today was the day he actually moved into the building, and was forced to skip the sermons, but he didn't care about it, as long as he could get things done without questions, he was fine with it. He recently did have the feeling he needed to get a better education to get his friends into a better home facility, but not those big orphanages because he didn't believe in them.

He still worried that they would be abused, the way he once was, when he was given to the Estraneo facility because his parents had died when he was so young.  
He carried what little he had and told the group he would be visiting them from time to time, and without further ado, he left.

Rokudou had a hard time being around people as well, which was why when they asked if he wanted to have a partner dorm or a single one, he asked for a single dorm room. It was quite rare for people to have a single room dorm, which was why he was put in the corner of the hall, at the third floor of the residence.

His room was relatively small, but good for one person or two, as it had a bed on the side, a student desk, a relatively big window, two doors, one for his bathroom, and one for the closet to put his clothes or other things. By an hour time, he was done putting clothes in the drawer which was for some reason out of the closet room, and had some of his clothes hung in there. He had his bathroom set up with the necessary items as well, and then lastly, he filled his desk with a personal computer he preordered and left it set on the desk before taking his satchel and going to the actual school building.

He went for a tour by himself, wearing the comfortable school uniform, even though it wasn't required of him to wear a uniform, but it was required that he had kept his school ID card everywhere he went, so he had it slung on his neck on a lanyard. Because it was during the Fall season, he donned a black coat as well, which reached his knees.  
The school building wasn't a bad place, rather it was a huge building, filled with things he never thought he'd see in schools. Long halls with the IT help desk being the closest, the Atrium had a piano that the students had decorated, along with long couches made of wood with comfortable maroon cushions, on the left of the atrium had a room called the "Student Association", and south of it was the bookstore from where the students had to buy textbooks. He didn't have enough money to buy any of them so he thought, he won't be shopping there any time sooner.

Because he got tired of touring the school, he left the building and went to the other section of it, which looked like a giant library. Libraries were always his favourite place as you can learn the most of everything there in their encyclopedia more than what you learn from incompetent teachers.

He found himself taking many of the books there, and signing them out for future reads. It wasn't only the encyclopedia he read there, but also as much as novels he can read, and information on raising people, and how to earn better for them.

Not like he was an angel of any sort, but he was just very disconnected from society, due to his strange heterochromia that people were always scared of because his right eye was red instead of the usual heterochromia of green and blue. Some said they even saw numbers in his eyes, which was one of the reasons why he tried his best to hide that eye, but people were rude enough to pull his hair away to see why he hidden that eye.

He sometimes had it covered by eye patches, or bandages that he lent his younger 'sister' Dokuro, who actually didn't have a right eye, but for most point, he said it was rude to use what she needed to cover his butt. He didn't like having to use something he didn't need for personal needs.

Speaking of little sisters, she was also one of the reasons why he wanted to raise more money. When he first time met her, she was in an accident and was almost killed. Her parents had her hospitalized for some time, but due to their greed, they thought maybe they should just leave her to die because she had lost most of her organs in the process.  
When she was left there, he had adopted her and used whatever he had to have her at least be able to perform humanly duties without having to take constant medication. The cost was he had to stay close with her, as for an unusual reason, she was at best condition when he was around her, but when he left her, she was average.

His other reasoning was to make them live happily, and not the way he lost his chance to live happily. Even though they were considered normal children, Rokudou was one of the students who had this gene which the professors at the orphanage said 'came from the grace of Hell' hence the red eye which was stitched onto him after they had his sapphire eye gouged out.

Fortunately for him, when he had Kakimoto and Jyoushima saved from further experimentation, they only had minor changes, such as Jyoushima being able to channel different animal aspects when he changed his teeth, and Kakimoto having a barcode on his cheek and a personality loss. At least they were able to walk, talk, eat, sleep and whatnot, that's what mattered to them most. One of the only good parts that came from it was he was able to erase the name of the Estraneo without getting caught, because no one supported them in the end.

M.M was from another rich family who were killed by Assassins, whom she personally killed after stealing one of their weapons, and managed to get away due to justified self-defence. And lastly Fran lived with them because his grandmother was too weak to support him, but he mostly went to her for taking care of them, as Rokudou gave all of them part of his salaries for them to do what they want.

Rokudou read one of the books which he was about to sign out, but due to book limits, he wasn't able to. He checked the time before leaving, putting the book back in the shelf as he was already finished reading it.

He got lost in the abyss of bookshelves and apparently went the wrong way and came across an office building that was right next to the College dorm residence. He shrugged and went in to see what this offices were here for.

Then he remembered when he went in, these were those financial aid offices he had to consult when he firstly applied for going here. He went in nonetheless.

Because he had missed the orientation, he couldn't get the information they told about, and had to tell himself all about them, and like a class shoujo manga thing, he happened to not watch where he was going because he was so lost in what he was thinking about that he almost bumped into a person if he didn't move away in the nick of time.

He looked up to see a pretty tall person, well not so tall, but at a good height, with short spiky black hair, and small obsidian eyes, looking heavily focused on this paper he was reading before looking down at the student. "Careful next time" he quickly said as he walked off. Then Rokudou thought, why not ask for a tour from him?

"I'm sorry, I can't tell where I'm going" he quietly looked down as he said that. The tall man looked at Rokudou's ID card before saying "Oh, a student" Rokudou gazed up again "You work here?" he nodded "Hibari Kyouya" he introduced, feeling it was rude that he knew the student but the student didn't know who he was.

"Hibari Kyouya. Well then Mr. Hibari, may I ask for a tour?" he said, and Hibari raised a brow at the honourific. He shrugged but then started leading the student around. He noticed the student had a peculiar style for his age. Looking no older than seventeen, the child had a few piercings on his ears, and an extra piercing on his left with had a strange designed earring, on top of that, he wore a black coat, and a white shirt, donning a black tie and his lanyard, black pants and black boats. Maybe black was his favourite colour.

The strangest part was his indigo hair, that was parted evenly around his face, a hairline of a strange zigzag pattern, and it was quite long for a boy, as it reached around his waist. For some reason at the back of his head was what he thought a hair extension that looked like a lotus. His hair must've been the thing that stood out the most on him.

Apart from his hair, he had quite the pale skin, looking like a student who never was out in the sun before, with pretty eyes of sapphire and ruby, again, he assumed it was a contact len, and overall a good looking person, but far too thin for his own good.  
He looked from where they were, then pointed "this is where you contact financial aid" and began to proceed giving him a tour, noticing how he'd look with the same smile on his face whenever he mentioned something and motioned him to look. He wasn't sure if he was just plastering a smile for politeness or was he genuinely interested.

"Who's room is this?" He suddenly pointed at the door, making Hibari look at it as well, then finding out "Oh, that's my office" Rokudou looked at him "You work.. here?" Hibari nodded, but then Rokudou shook his head "No no, I mean you work here, this room. Right here?" He nodded again as he led him in the room. The little college kid began to laugh and pointed at the window.

"Kuhahaah! I live there" he turned while pointing at the window, making Hibari bend down to peek, but because the dorm room was covered in curtains, he couldn't see anything. "That's your room?" Rokudou nodded, "Mhm! I never thought we'd live so closely" he laughed again, the office worker stared at him, confused.

'Why is he getting so excited?' he asked himself as he looked at the curtain covered room again. Rokudou looked like a child who just received candy when the subject of rooms came.

Maybe he was more normal than he had anticipated him to be.

"Oi, we're still having the 'tour', come on" Hibari motioned him to leave, but Rokudou came to a halt, noticing his student profile papers were on his desk. "At least my picture doesn't look bad" he joked, skimming through before putting them back and leaving with Hibari.

Hibari then gave him a rough tour of everything else, then led him back, noticing Rokudou was beginning to look more tired. He must've had a busy day. Hibari shrugged as he led him out of the office rooms, and took him back to the dorm "You look tired, go to sleep" He said as he turned to leave

"Wait, let me thank you" Hibari turned around as Rokudou smiled "Thanks a lot for the tour" he bowed politely, Hibari let a 'hn' before leaving, leaving the student to watch him leave.

Both had the same thought as they went back _"What a strange person"  
_

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_**Short intro chapters are short intro chapters**_

_**Any sort of feedback would be greatly appreciated~**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**AN: {you may choose to skip}  
What kind of job would suit Rokudou here?  
**_

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_**Chapter 2: Of new annoyances**_

As oblivious as it sounds, Hibari wasn't expecting anything after he gave the 'tour' to the little Rokudou Mukuro, he just thought "If I give it to him, he'll go away" and he felt rude for turning down a request even though it was none of his concerns.

At least it was worth seeing that even the people who can look pretty bland can be something better than what he was.

But back to the point, now that he had done that tour and sent him off to bed, he didn't expect to have the said student opening his curtains only to wave at him from the window. Hibari huffed and looked away, which made him lower his hand and leave.  
Was this something to happen everyday now? Hibari hoped not, but a gut feeling came that it would.

The next day being now, he thought this would decide everything. He might be able to firmly judge the child like he judged his whole classmates. He didn't want to get out of his office just now, but he was curious at the same time if he had people to be around, because his way of speaking appeared stereotypically like someone who doesn't hang out with others.

He decided, he'll go out for a walk when his break comes, but when does his break come? Who knows. The other fact was how he didn't know the schedule of the student either, so he might just be walking in circles and that would also be a waste of time.

Besides, his break times are his nap times he loved. Maybe he should just wait for _him_ to approach him first.

But no, that would destroy his aim entirely, because he'll be different infront of him now that they are acquaintances.

Oh well, he sighed as he got off his chair and left his room. Alaude saw him leave but said nothing, because it wasn't like he was not allowed to, in fact it was strange how Hibari had himself secluded in that room twenty-four/seven, even when he was allowed to take the whole day off.

And Alaude knows best, there's no need for peeking into someone else's lives. Though he did owe the skylark now, for covering him for yesterday. He was surprised to hear he was covered by him knowing that he didn't ask for a substitute.

More importantly, not him. Within the two weeks of working with him, Alaude felt he knew enough of what he needed to know about Hibari. Similar personality people who work hard.

That's all what was important to him, nothing more.

Hibari left the office building and then went to the building next door, forgetting that you'd need keys in order to enter a dorm room. But as strange as it sounded, when he reached Rokudou's room, he noticed the door was unlocked. Shrugging, he went inside, putting a mental note to remind the student when he finds him: lock the door.

He noticed the room was almost an empty looking one, with everything as neatly put like if no one was there. Pajamas folded neatly on the bed reminded him there was someone living here, but everything else didn't appear to be so. The curtains were closed, the drawers looked unused, and the student desk had almost nothing on it save for a laptop charger.

Were things stolen from this room? He made more mental notes based upon it. Maybe someone broke his lock and then entered, stealing whatever he had and left it for him to see. But yet..

He didn't see anything that looked like a threat, there were no graffiti on the walls like the stereotypes tell him. In fact it just looked like a clean room which someone who was leaving to go someone would leave it as. To him it was eerie compared to his desk full of paper and a lamp.

As long as he won't get reported for trespassing right now, he's fine with exploring. After _his_ tour around the room, he left, not sure what to do about the door, so he pulled a small sticky note from his pocket and stuck it to the door, writing "lock your door next time" before actually feeling reassured about warning as he left the building.  
As he was walking outside, he noticed a group of students walking around, chatting amongst each other. One silverette, he called "G #2" yelling at the darker skinned white head "Knuckle #2", while the black haired one "Ugetsu #2" was trying to calm them down. Then he noticed the focused looking student "Sawada #2" who simply passed by them, telling them something he couldn't hear, and they all suddenly looked happy and started talking in unison.  
Feeling nostalgic, he went to the high school side of Namimori, taking it the fresh scent of nostalgia of a place he had always loved.

As he went, he was unsure of the time but he assumed it was already lunch time for them as he saw students outside, playing amongst each other. Then he saw "Lampow #2" with a little girl who was either laughing or crying, with the same hairstyle as Daemon, so he called her "Daemon #2", both were talking about something he didn't care about, all he knew was that they all had striking resemblances.  
He wondered if they were siblings he never asked the others about, but now he actually felt the need to ask, even if he almost never spoken a word to them. They were strangely alike. Then again, he and Alaude weren't related but people did mistaken the two for each other.

"Daemon #2" stopped what she was doing, then was talking to this red haired girl who was calling her for something, looking a little concerned, but then shouting something at "Lampow #2", Hibari sighed. High schoolers really do look like children sometimes.

He checked the time and decided he should be heading back by now, so he did. Walking back after taking one final look at the building, he turned away from it and headed to his office. As he finally reached his office room, he unlocked the door and then proceeded to read student profiles, just so that he could stop calling them '#2'.

So "Sawada #2" was named Giotto, and he was one of the youngest students in the group of people he was with, "Ugetsu #2" was Yamamoto Takeshi, who was the same age as "G#2" named Gokudera Hayato, "Knuckle #2" or Sasagawa Ryouhei however, was a year older than them.  
How come he never seen Sasagawa then? Oh right, he himself was new to the office.

He didn't find "Daemon #2" or "Lampow #2" in the college student profiles, but then found them in the high school section.

Each had some detail which explained the characters, but for some reason, on Rokudou's profile, everything was so vague. To shut him off his analysis, he heard knocking on the window, even though his window was open.  
He moved the curtains and saw Rokudou was waving at him with his closed window, only to open it and then say "See? We do live close by~" Hibari gave a slight smile saying "If you have class now, get to it" Rokudou only smiled "Kufufufu.. I don't have classes today" he gave the student a confused look, then realized.

Those people were just on their hangout time, rather than waiting for classes to begin. That explains "By the way.." Rokudou looked down for a moment, and then pulled out a sticky note "You sent this, didn't you?" he laughed when Hibari nodded "Can't be that careless, you child. Anything can happen in dorm rooms" he stopped laughing "Not when you have nothing of interest"

At that, Hibari fell into silence and looked elsewhere "But anyways, Mr. Hibari Kyouya" he looked back at Rokudou "Is the sky blue?" and gave him an incredulous look "What does that mean?" but Rokudou only had a smile, as if he was trying to make Hibari think about it. The sky in his view was as bright as ever, shining mockingly to those who loathed it. It was majestically blue, with the sun beaming, warming up cold souls as much as it could've with the cold air.

"I'm busy, so don't bug me" He moved away from the window, making Rokudou frown slightly, but then smile again "Alright, see you later, Mr. Hibari Kyouya~" he saw the student waving at him with his peripheral vision "Just Hibari or Kyouya, now shut up" he then lowered his window, seeing that Rokudou looked like he was writing something, then brought it up "Okay~ take care Mr. Hibari" Hibari sighed as he moved away from the window and back to his desk.

"_Is the sky really blue?"_ He asked himself as he put away a pile of paper away from him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier the day, there indeed were no classes, as for the students who were in the same program as Giotto only had classes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The weekends and Thursdays were off for them, which let them have the lee-way of what they wanted to do. The school buildings were open, for the other students, which was why they still had permission to hang out even if they are not required to.

Giotto first had a small talk with the Vice Principal Sawada due to their family relation, and spent the rest of the day doing student council things while hanging out with Gokudera, Yamamoto and Sasagawa. Sasagawa occasionally brought his sister along with them, but she was usually with the other students because she was a rather busy one too.

Rokudou, however, wasn't the kind who'd hangout with people, so he kept to himself as he pretended to go to the library again, only so that he could take the private call that came to him as he got out of the room. He knew that no one would be around him when he is in a building of silence, so he had the full chance to do what he had to do.

"How much would it be?" he asked as he scanned his surroundings, keeping his phone in a tight grip. "Alright. Just please continue your service to her" he said as he stood up and walked out as quietly as he can, quiet enough that the librarians didn't notice he even left until the door clicked.

When no one was watching, he took a long object which was covered in a black cloth from his dorm room, kept his school bag with him as he slung the strap of the object on his right shoulder and went out again, not caring whether his room door was open or not. He didn't have anything in the room that someone can acquire information from, so it didn't matter to him whether he had the place all secured and shut or just left as it was.

Knowing that Hibari's office was close to his, he managed to sneak off without letting him be notified that he evacuated from his room, not evicted, just evacuated, as in, leaving.  
When he knew he was in no one's sight, he removed the covering off the long stick-like object to reveal a beautifully silver designed trident, which had a pole of rich black, and ending with a stub of silver. The silver shone in the light as he put the cloth in the bag he had and moved the bangs which were supposed to be hiding his eye.

"Well then.." knowing he was around the outskirts of the town "I guess I could get going" he casually held his weapon as he checked the location on his phone again, for clarification.  
It wasn't the best job he had, but it was one of the only ones which he could get. Because the doctors would usually look at the ruby red eye and say he's a paranormal child, he was not given much opportunity for working in the community, even if he had hidden that eye.

Only one place considered hiring him, and it was not a rather good team, as it cannot be considered doing it for justice, it was only murder for the sake of getting rid of hindrances. Those who knew him in school did not know about this profession he chose, as he always said he wanted to go to psychology back when people asked which program he would love to have been in. For a strange reason, no one would think that he was some Yakuza person, which was a breather for him, because normally people should be saying that he looks like one.

It was probably the innocent behaviour he shown them. Back in Kokuyo, Rokudou was known for his kind behaviour, and how he was so intelligent for his age that everyone thought he was home schooled, or brought up in a strict learning environment. But even if he had the good looks that girls or boys would like him for, he was always found alone all his life long. Even when he had graduated with scholarships, there were people who were happy about it, such as his 'siblings', but other than that, he wasn't chosen for being the class representative even though his percentages screamed for it.

So to sum it up, he was considered a paranormal, but a very intelligent creature of mankind. His intelligence and his ability to dissolve within crowds was the exact reason why they chose him for these jobs, even if he disliked it. It was the only payment he was getting, and the only service who would take him in.

Once again, this is not for him, it's for _them_.

Those who were sharing his sufferings. Those whom he wants to reach out to get them out of the hell he had to live in. Those who are too innocent and pure to fall into what he faced. Those who don't deserve it.

They were his family for that reason. For him to save and protect.

And this was why he would approach his new opponents with a maniacal grin, slashing them down with full force. He didn't care if they had something to cry for, these were the kind of people who'd hurt them the most, by shunning them, framing them, hurting them, and leaving them to die in a cruel world such as this.

Rokudou laughed as he saw the person below scream and cry for mercy, as he slowly cut up newer wounds on their bodies, making them die as slowly and painfully as it can get "Kufufufufu.. be thankful then, this _is_ my mercy" he felt the blood splatter on his cheek as he finished 'playing' with the person, finding out he was already dead. He looked above the dead corpse, to see the kind of scenery he made, out of the beautiful but tainted blood of theirs.

"How beautiful.." he fingered the blood off his cheek and looked at it "The evilest of people have the prettiest blood" he then ripped off part of the clean parts of one of the corpse's coats, and wiped the dark blood off his trident, and some that fell on him in the process.

Now that the 'fun' part was over, he figured, the 'boring' part is now. He light up a piece of wood which broke from the floor with a lighter. When the light coloured flame came on the wood piece, he casually threw it saying a small prayer-like thing

"May you accept the offering of ours" He quietly said as he saw the fire growing, giving him a signal to leave the place before he would get caught in the process.

Knowing that this household-base was far from Namimori town, word will not be heard about the building, so he was at an advantage once again. Rokudou Mukuro will never be caught for any antic, because of the well placed settings, and his clever covers.

He sat on a tree watching the building finally burnt to a crisp, as he then it stopped due to the lack of oxygen in the air, and oxygen was required for the fire to continue, without it, it has nothing to breathe on, and would just stop.

Although there was still a considerable amount of oxygen in the air now, the fire seemed tired enough to stop itself and be put to rest. When the show was over, Rokudou turned and went back, covering his trident with the cloth he had earlier, and slung it back on his shoulder, looking at the time; not even afternoon yet as he begun to dial a number on his phone.

"Yeah, I'm just done finishing up" he looked up at the sky as he talked on the phone, walking back into Namimori town. The sky was as dark as ever, mocking him with the lack of light. It was like the sky hated him, even though he loved the sky as people called it 'Bright, beautiful and ever so welcoming'  
He once tried to reach for the sky one time. Crying and writhing in unbearable pain, he reached out, calling out to the sky, screaming to it, begging, to the point he almost collapsed by simply calling to the heartless sky. To him, the sky's denial to his pleas hurt more than anything he had to endure in his short lives.

It was lies when people said the sky was so bright and welcoming. It was cruel, dark and selective, harshly ruling out who were worthy of seeing the sky, the ones unworthy left behind to continue crying the way they did.

He glared at the sky, and then glanced away from it, knowing it'll just make him needlessly angry; an emotion he doesn't need, and never had needed.

He just had to do what he had to do, nothing more and nothing less.

Finally reaching his dorm room, he noticed a sticky note message, saying "lock your door next time". He pulled it off of the door and looked at the handwriting. It was too formal looking to be a student's writing, so he could tell it wasn't from anyone living in the building. It could've just been the landlord. Who knows?

He threw the covered trident to a wall in his closet, set down his bag and then laid down on the bed, reading a new message from the one who called him before. It was notifying him that the money he received was once again sent to Kokuyo land, in his account, with a bonus due to completing it early and having all evidence destroyed. He sighed in relief as he threw his phone to the side of the bed, resting a hand on his forehead.

Then he thought, he really needs to get his mind off it, as he looked at the note again, then he smiled, going to the window in his room, knocking on it to make a noise before opening it when he saw his neighbour walk over to it. He waved at him when he knew he caught his attention "See? We do live close by~" he saw the office man have a small smile on his face as he was told "If you have class now, get to it" Rokudou smiled again "I don't have any today" seeing as Hibari gave him a confused look. He was about to explain it, but he looked like he understood the situation.

"By the way.." Rokudou looked down at the note and then showed it to Hibari "You sent this, didn't you?" he asked with an amused look on his face, and began to laugh when he received a nod as a reply "Can't be that careless, you child. Anything can happen in dorm rooms" he lowered his laugh "Not when you have nothing of interest", the foreign feeling of a stranger being concerned to him made him feel happy, not knowing he would be feeling such emotion in the early morning.  
Then he noticed the silence that came from Hibari, from a much sadder smile to a silly plastered one "But anyways, Mr. Hibari Kyouya" he saw Hibari look up at him "Is the sky blue?" he didn't expect him to actually look up the sky, then give him an incredulous look "What does that mean?" he asked as Rokudou continued to smile. Suddenly Hibari abruptly shut his eyes and looked bothered "I'm busy, so don't bug me" and saw him move away from the window.

Moving away from him. Disconnecting.

It gave a frown, but then he smiled again "Alright, see you later, Mr. Hibari Kyouya~" he waved again, the same way as when he greeted him "Just Hibari or Kyouya, now shut up" he heard the other grumble, but said nothing further as he saw the other go back to his desk which was away from the window, but putting his hand to a halt, staring with a disconnected expression.

"I wonder what the colour of the sky he sees.. Would it be the same as me?" He said to himself, closing the window slightly, and opening the curtains on them.

Later the day Rokudou began to knock on his window, making Hibari go to his window again "What?" he asked boredly, seeing as he didn't even remove the reading glasses he wore "Oh nothing, nothing~" Rokudou laughed "Isn't it a nice night out here?" the worker looked up "Ah, it's already night time?" then the student looked quizzically "Eh. Were you so stuck on work you didn't notice the time pass?" Hibari shrugged, then Rokudou let a light laugh "You really fit the stereotype!" Hibari wondered "_What stereotype?"_ as he remained silent at that "Kufufu.. My apologies, I sometimes speak nonsense" Hibari shook his head "Don't you have school tomorrow?" he simply asked, as he was already in a sense, bothered by the new company "Well yes, so you might not see me tomorrow" Rokudou pretended to make a crying gesture, which made Hibari snort "You'll be back before I even know it" then it was Rokudou's turn to look confused

"..Do you look forward to that?" he asked, "Who said that?" Hibari countered with another question "Awww.. I was hoping that you'd like my company"

Truth told to Hibari, he didn't actually care. He didn't mind his company, in fact it was better than most nonsensical people he had met over the years. Much better than yappy and whiny brats he once knew.

And Rokudou had a similar look to his. Even though it was only a day since he met him, he noticed that he had the presence of a very lonely person. Hibari never knew he could be so quick to judge that by just talking to them. Well, it wasn't even a real conversation they had.

This is the actual ones they were trying to have, and he figured out: Rokudou is horrible at speaking to people.

"Mr. Hibari" Rokudou for the second time in the day, snapped him out his thoughts "I might have things I'll need help on, would you help me?" he asked, looking at one of the books Hibari assumed was part of his course material.

"I'll.. do what I can, I guess" Hibari shrugged, not wanting to suddenly turn him down, but he wasn't aware if he would have time for it tomorrow. "If I have the time" he said again, rephrasing what he said earlier. By what he observed in his trip to the school during his break, he could tell that Rokudou wouldn't hang out with people very often, so if he was stuck somewhere, everyone will give him the cold shoulder.

He didn't want to be one of those people, as he knew the pain of being ignored.

As merciless as he was, he could totally sympathize with it. "Really? Thank you Mr. Hibari~" he heard the other chirp thankfully, and gave him a bemused look "Are you really a college student?" he laughed to himself, seeing a surprised look from Rokudou "I already made you laugh!" Rokudou laughed alongside, but due to their voices being the pretty low kind, both of their laughs were quiet.

"And for your information, I'm just seventeen" he stopped laughing, but had a gentle smile on his face "So I might be a bit childish" Hibari stopped as well, not being able to make a straight enough face, but at the same time, not being able to smile at it "Hn"

Hibari heard Alaude's footsteps and then out of instinct opened the door, but then realized he hit the door on the blond's face, pretty hard.

Alaude fell to the floor, sitting and rubbing his temple "Abrupt.." he muttered as he saw Hibari give him a comically surprised look "What is it?" the black haired man wasn't sure what to do, apologize or just not react, but this must've been the most embarrassing thing he did.

"I'll.. watch myself more.. carefully" he awkwardly said as he helped Alaude up "No it's fine" he replied, checking his folder again before giving it to him "Just have these done in a week. It'd be fine to get it done earlier, but it's not required" Hibari took the folder and saw Alaude leave, still wanting to apologize, but it was still awkward to him as he shut the door.

"Mr. Hibari, everything alright?" Hibari looked over to Rokudou who looked genuinely curious. Genuine in his view, at least "Yeah, just hit someone in the face opening the door" he straightforwardly said, and Rokudou looked as if he wasn't sure whether to laugh or apologize.

"Laugh, its fine" Hibari blankly stared, as if commanding him to laugh rather than suggesting it, as they both gave a little laugh when they thought about it, except Rokudou didn't know who was that unfortunate soul who got bashed in the face by the relentless door.

"But though who was it?" Rokudou asked, making Hibari look away, then at him "Alaude."  
Being able to picture it better, they restarted laughing.

"That had to hurt" Rokudou held his side.

"Hn" Hibari agreed, quietly chuckling himself and then eyed the folder, then saw Rokudou looking at it "Work?" Hibari nodded again.

"_He might just be busy then.."_ Rokudou thought to himself as he waved at him "Oh yeah, because we both have stuff to do, goodnight~" Hibari gave a small wave "Hn, 'night" as he saw Rokudou move the curtains again, he did the same.

"_This is going to be a long year" _He sighed as he went back to his desk

* * *

_**I'm sorry that the humour is a bit weak in these, I'll be sure to make them much funnier as this is not supposed to entirely be an angst story.**_

_**Anywho, as always, any sort of feedback would be greatly appreciated~**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**~ I'm taking prompts for this pairing for a new drabble fic I might work on, if you're interested, please PM me~ **_

_**Onwards~ **_

_**Disclaimers~: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me, it respectfully belongs to Akira Amano.**_

* * *

_**Chapter 3: Of new contacts and texts**_

Hibari made it a habit now. Even though he is not the kind to be making habits such as these, in less than two days, he's grown accustomed to doing it now.

What was the habit? Well..

Everytime Hibari would sign in and go to his office for his daily duties, he'd make sure to take a look outside through his window, then get to work, rather than just working on spot.

Once again, this was one of Hibari's new habits, and Alaude didn't know of it, so he didn't question him based on the "weird actions" of always doing that.

Right now, his work was mostly maintaining the folder that Alaude gave him, which contained customer records, which contained their date of birth, work status and whatnot. He decided not to touch it for now and went back to writing a report for another client they had come in not too long ago.

~pause line~

As opposed to the time Hibari woke up, which was 9:00 am, Rokudou had already went to college by the time it was 5:30 am due to early classes. For waiting out most of the time he had because of waking up too early, he read one of the other books he had signed out previously on the orientation day.

Because it was too early for anyone to be up, he received no call from Kakimoto even though he was, in a sense waiting for one, just to confirm that they had received the payment for the job Rokudou does as he told them to have it sent directly to Kokuyo Land.

He didn't think many would be awake, but the college doors being open told most of the IT managers were possibly the only ones who would be to have the doors open, computers running and whatnot.  
Even as he thought that, most of the computer labs though, were closed. Scheduling to open much later, he had himself sitting in the atrium, casually reading, expecting no one to be arriving with him.

But of course he had to be wrong on that. When he heard shuffling, he glanced up from the book to see a messy haired blond boy who looked really short for his age and status, for some reason he was wearing quite the formal wear and what Rokudou would call, strange gloves. Overall he did look odd, but not in a very bad way as he had one of the kindest looking faces he had seen. Even if people didn't know him, by just one glance they can tell how mature the student really was.

The blond kid looked up from his bag which he apparently set down and then smiled at the indigo bookworm infront of him, who gave a cracked smile in return. The blond kid was worried that he made the other feel awkward and bowed to him, which surprised Rokudou and made him close his book and wave his arms in defense.

"My apologies for making you feel uncomfortable" the blond started as a sweat drop ran down Rokudou's face, not knowing how to react in a situation like this as many would either chat too much with him or either not at all.

"No it's fine, actually" he stopped waving his hands but kept them in the same position, trying to smile as normally as he can, but the awkward gesture wasn't obeying him in the slightest. The blond kid then looked up and stopped bowing and smiled again "We haven't met before, haven't we? My name's Giotto, what's yours?" he introduced himself as Rokudou then stood up, for the sake of manners  
"I'm.. Rokudou Mukuro, it's nice to meet you um.. Giotto" sounding like an excited normal student was pretty hard on him especially when he finds someone he doesn't know yet, and especially when he knows absolutely nothing on them, but because he had the look of someone who didn't talk a lot, Giotto didn't mind it as he extended his hand "It's nice to meet you as well Rokudou san" Rokudou looked down at the hand, then shook it, feeling a little more calm.

"People said it was weird for me to go to College on seventeen, can you believe them?" when they both moved their hands away, Giotto sat next to him and engaged in a conversation which didn't sound like they were trying to say 'how old are you?' but rather in a more conversational way. "Kufufu.. I don't actually, because I'm seventeen as well" Rokudou laughed, but in his mind he literally said 'you don't look like you're seventeen!'

It was true though. Giotto still looked like a high schooler loitering around college. But it wasn't like Rokudou looked any older than him, but he did have a height which said it can work out. Standing at five foot six and a half, Giotto was a pretty small one, standing at five foot one. The joke was like Vice Principal Sawada, whose hair made him look three inches taller, Giotto's hair was a little scattered rather than a fire looking one, which was why it only elevated him by one and a half inch, rather than three.

Now to look at it..

"No, before you ask that, no. I'm not Mr. Sawada's son" Giotto laughed and said as if he read Rokudou's mind "Then are you psychic?" he asked as he bent a little lower, inspecting Giotto's orange eyes that seemed a bit.. transparent?

"No, I'm not psychic" he simply said as he kept a gentle smile on his face, "But do you think prodigies exist in this world?" he then asked Rokudou, who then leaned back on the couch like bench. "By an easy first glance, we only assume people are prodigies" lolling his head he looked at Giotto "Like yourself. At first glance, and because your height, people might think you skipped grades" Giotto then leant back as well "So they're just assumptions.. That's an interesting way to put it"

"Are you waiting for someone?" Rokudou changed the subject, making Giotto frown "No, I'm not waiting for anyone. But back to prodigies again, you seem younger looking than the others, do you consider yourself a prodigy?" he then scratched his head "Kufufu.. Me? Never" making the blond have a sad smile

"You know what? I think you are. No one would come up with things the way you do" saying that the blond stood up, and Rokudou turned his head to his direction "Rokudou-kun, I like people like you, would you like to be my friend?" once Giotto stood infront of Rokudou, he extended his hand again in an inviting gesture  
"Isn't it a bit early for that?" he laughed, but nonetheless took his hand as he stood up, shaking it as humourously as he can, making Giotto laugh as he made it even more awkward "This could be our own handshake" he said as he laughed, and Rokudou just thought

"_Weird, but he's cool"_

Weird because he didn't think that Giotto would be such a welcoming person considering how stereotypically prodigies are, but cool because even when he's talking nonsense, he looks just right doing that. How laid back of him.

"Our own handshake, now what are you talking about?" Rokudou asked sarcastically "I mean what I mean, Rokudou-kun" which put him to a halt "You're serious?" Giotto smiled again, this time his smile was different. It was those smiles which wasn't to judge someone, but it was welcoming to any soul. It was like he didn't care whether Rokudou was some weird punky student or not.

Like how people describe a sky.

Giotto. Great Sky. That does make sense, he's like the sky on Earth.

"I'm very serious, Rokudou-kun. Don't worry, we won't do bad things together if that's what you are worried about." Giotto stated, ending it with a joke "Kufufufu.. The last part was the joke right?" then nodded "See? Rokudou-kun you're pretty smart enough to tell. Usually Gokudera-kun would take it so seriously, then Yamamoto-kun would shrug it off, and Sasagawa-Senpai wouldn't even understand it" Giotto used his free hand to make different gestures when he was saying that, and Rokudou concluded, those must be some people he hangs around with.

They might not like him if they get to know him.

Then Giotto shook his hand awkwardly as they previously were again "Rokudou-kun, just remember whenever you feel bored, you can always talk to me, eh?" he sounded rather angry when he said that, as the smile on his face told him otherwise. Rokudou quietly complied, saying a small "ahn" with an accidental stutter.

After a bit, they stopped the handshake, Rokudou was still spazzing a bit while Giotto laughed at him for an after reaction. "Rokudou-kun, it's a little out of my league, but can I see your schedule?" without a reply he took it out to show him "Is it the same one?" he asked as he saw a smile creep up Giotto's face again

"Mhm. We're in the same classes, this is great" he gave it back, "Now I can bother you everyday" he joked again, making Rokudou laugh "Kuhahh, shouldn't it be me to bother you?" Giotto shook his head quickly "Nah, I once asked Mr. Alaude about it, and he just made like a grump saying 'you do bother me actually'" Giotto puffed his cheeks pretending to be Alaude, and it didn't help stopping Rokudou from laughing than what he already was "It's hilarious, but he always told me and Mr. Sawada about how Mr. Daemon slacks off!" even though he found it funny, Rokudou found more that was funny. He knew vaguely about Alaude, but Daemon.. He just pictured him to be a funny looking guy.

"You know Mr. Hibari, right?" At the mention of Hibari, Rokudou stopped "Yeah, sorta" Giotto then pointed upward to tell a fact "Mr. Alaude looks just like him, but always in a trench coat, and has platinum blond hair" As he explained that, Rokudou remembered what Hibari told him previously, about slamming the door in this fragile person's face.

So that was Alaude who was the unfortunate soul who got slammed on the face. "You know awfully a lot about them, does Mr. Sawada tell you about it?" Giotto nodded at the question "He's my uncle, so I lived with him" then Rokudou just said "Oh" in a sense of understanding. That would explain the striking resemblance between the two. "Your name really isn't just 'Giotto' isn't it?" Giotto smiled at that, and left it as it was.

"Do you have any relation to Mr. Daemon though?" Giotto then asked, as he eyed the strange spikes of Rokudou's hair "I have no idea who Mr. Daemon is" making the blond make a dumbfounded expression "But your hair.." Rokudou huffed "Or I don't think.. he's related"

Either way, he didn't know who Daemon was, and what he looked like, but he can only assume that he had the same lotus bit of his hair, other than that, he didn't bother visualizing the rest "Anywho, enough of family, we have class in ten minutes, boy does time surely fly" Giotto said as he picked up Rokudou's book and put it in his bag, before picking his own bag

"You can follow me if you want, I'm sure you don't know where class is" Rokudou smiled sheepishly when Giotto mentioned 'you don't know where class is' "I really don't. Sorry" He said as he begun to follow the little blond. Giotto told it was fine to not know about it as he led him to class, stating that since they have the same class, he could just follow him to class, which made Rokudou shudder thinking about always looking like some leech, but Giotto said "It's a friend thing. Friends follow one another" which was a good enough excuse for him to comply, even though he'd disagree heavily with it.

They just got to know each other and yet, Rokudou felt like he knew Giotto for years. That is quite horrifying, but sentimental at the time.

When they were in their classes, Rokudou noticed that Giotto's group were actually supposed to be considered diligent students that attend every class, even after he was told that one of them, Gokudera, skips classes a lot because he was too smart for them, Yamamoto was seated on Giotto's left, as he made Rokudou sit by his right. Sasagawa Ryouhei was a year ahead of them so he wasn't in this class.

Rokudou noted that Giotto also had other friends which went by the names Sasagawa Kyouko, who was the little sister of Sasagawa Ryouhei, Miura Haru, and Kurokawa Hana. Sasagawa was happy to see that Giotto had another friend to add in his group, while Miura was a little skeptical because within their group of friends, even though they had like unnatural hair colour and whatnot, Rokudou had the presence of a person who didn't seem to fit with them. Kurokawa on the other end, was one of the quickest to warm up to him, seeing as they were quite similar with their thoughts and features. Miura being too bright for Kurokawa, she found it refreshing that there was someone who doesn't make her eyes bleed.

The teachers in Rokudou's opinion were alright, at least they were able to cover the course materials in a way which was understandable, sometimes he'd stumble because of the long method for something as small as the answer for certain things, but he found it fine, because that was a way to make students self-teach the shortcuts, which was the teacher's secret. Some students were able to catch on that, some weren't.

It was too early to judge everyone already, so he might have to stick with them for another week to make actual judgment.

By the end of the day, Rokudou actually received homework that he needed help on, and hoped that Hibari wouldn't be so busy because he did ask yesterday if he could assist him, which the other replied with "If I'm not busy", so it was unknown whether he was actually busy or not.  
Giotto offered him help because he was going to have it done as a group tomorrow, and Rokudou said "It depends" confusing Giotto, but he told him it was fine because he could always join at the last minute tomorrow, and had actually given Rokudou his contact information, along with the group's contact information.

He felt a bit odd about it, but at the same time he was happy about it as he held his phone, checking his _new_ contacts that came by in less than a day, smiling like a high school girl who receives a present. But at the same time, he felt sad, because there was a possibility that they'd be a distraction to him with his _job_, and they could be persecuted as well, so he made sure that they were private information.

He couldn't let more people get into the trouble he narrowly had a few children escape from.

Speaking of phones, he checked his messages in case they had sent him another log for a mission, which they haven't. None today, relieving and saddening at the same time.

He went back to his dorm building while reading a few group messages from his new set of friends, unlocking his door before locking it again as he went inside. He looked at the window, and then smiled. He should get Hibari's contact information as well, just to ease things.

With that he left his room by jumping out of the window rather than getting out a normal way, and then went to the office building by the front entrance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hibari heard someone something outside as he looked out at the window, seeing that Rokudou's window was still open and looked to the floor, seeing nothing there. Did the child already commit suicide when it's the first few days?

For some reason a small pain came inside Hibari's heart as he thought about it. That would be too early for someone to commit suicide.

He felt that he was to blame for not talking better with the child.

But as he begun to feel sad about it, he heard a knock on his door. He walked over to it and slowly opened it, expecting Alaude to ask him something related to work, except he saw nothing but small specks of blue hair. He lowered his head to see Rokudou smiling with his hands behind him.

"Oh it's you" Hibari simply said, thanking his voice box for sounding so stoic even though he was actually lamenting earlier thinking about a child's death, but he was right in front of him, like right there. So he dead was impossible.

Hibari quietly let Rokudou in as he looked to and fro before closing his door. Seeing that Rokudou didn't move from where he got in from, he pointed to a chair on the side and told him to sit, which he complied, because it wasn't his own room where he could sit anywhere.

"Alright, what do you want?" he asked as he opened the window to let the breeze inside the already lively but quiet room. Rokudou was seated on one of the chairs he made him sit on, with his bag on his lap as he looked up with a smile "Kufufu.. Mr. Hibari Kyouya, you told me you'd help me with homework if you were free" then Hibari flicked him on the forehead "And I told you to just call me either Hibari or Kyouya" he scolded, seeing as the student had a hand on his forehead, covering the area he flicked.

It was a common thing in college that the students don't need to speak to adults in a formal manner but rather just address them like if they were just some other person in the world. Hibari was unaware of how Rokudou was not used to that sort of sense of informality that runs in colleges.

"Don't give me that look" he coldly said when Rokudou gave him a smile of uncertainty. So he decided to get to the point "Alright, what's the work you need help in?" Rokudou looked confused but then took out his notebook and showed him one of the word scenarios that he was having trouble with.

Hibari began to read through it, more like the usual skimming through, and then went forward to the questions "Do you understand what they're asking?" he asked to make sure he is not just slacking off and making him do his homework. "I have, and my answer was I wasn't sure of it" he showed a stray page that was almost ripped out of the book, so Hibari flipped to that page, seeing the neat handwriting showing evidence of being crossed out and erased a lot of times. He mentally shrugged and decided; he'll just give him a little clarification.

When he started to figure out what was in the scenario, his questions to the questions were very similar to what Rokudou was asking himself as he was writing, which made him slump. "What happened?" Rokudou asked when he noticed Hibari's shoulders slump "We aren't getting anywhere" He sulked as he kept writing, now he was scratching out the things he wrote himself, and then looked at Rokudou who was smiling at him, unsure whether he should be laughing or just sympathizing with him.

"Don't laugh" he glared, Rokudou then played with the bangs that he used to cover his eye for, and of course Hibari noticed that. Why he is suddenly hiding it? Was it an accident when he saw it that time?

"Your eye.." he put the notebook on the table while looking at the hidden eye under bangs. Rokudou moved back on his seat then saw something to change the subject "Let me see what you wrote" he said pointing at his notebook, which Hibari knew he was trying to dodge the statement, but it wasn't like he was going to get more information on it, so he showed him the book which had a million scratched out stuff.

Rokudou tried holding his laughter looking at the book, while Hibari looked away, slightly embarrassed at his failure. "Stop looking at it, rip it out" he said while looking in nowhere in particular, then Rokudou actually held his laughter and put a more rational smile "No.. I think I understand it better now" Hibari raised a brow as he looked at the little student suddenly writing a lot of words without having to erase any part of it. He actually does have the right idea now.

"Alright, I think this does it" he stopped writing to show it to Hibari, who took the book from him and began to peruse through it, seeing as he was actually able to make connections through the bull they both previously wrote, and it even sounded better than before.  
Rokudou looked up again as Hibari looked so concentrated reading "Is it good?" when he was done reading, he gave it back to Rokudou "Yeah, much better" he said in the most pleasant tone he can muster, which is almost impossible for him, but it still made Rokudou smile as he put the book back and stood up. "Wow, it really was all thanks to you Mr. Hibari" Rokudou bowed in thanks and Hibari was about to turn away, but then he saw Rokudou wasn't moving.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he saw that the student was still looking at him and before he knew it, the student was hugging him. "Thanks Mr. Hibari~" he said as he hugged him, and Hibari wasn't sure what to do, so he did nothing as Rokudou let go, smiling at the student "You owe me now" which made Rokudou laugh "and of course I'll have it paid soon"

What Hibari didn't know was that he just caused Rokudou to worry about that. He didn't know that Rokudou assumed it was a monetary thing, and was wondering how to pay him and how much would it be. He just thought it was a favour, and that's all there's to it.

"Oh well, see you Mr. Hibari~" He waved as he left, before Hibari can say "Just say Kyouya" as the door quietly closed.

He ran a hand through his hair "troublesome child", until he saw Rokudou come in again. "What happened?" Hibari asked as he watched him come inside "I forgot something" he replied, looking at his phone. "Can we exchange contact numbers?" he then asked, showing his phone screen to him.

Hibari went in a total pause mode. Even though he can be amazing when it came to software skills that was only on the computer desktop, not a phone or any other thing. He was still those old fashioned using telephone user rather than the everyday mobile users. Yet he carried an emergency phone in case things happened, even if he didn't know how to use them.

Rokudou's phone looked a bit old however, compared to what the students usually purchased. Normally people would be having those huge cased I-phone 5's, but his looked like a low I-phone 3s, and it looked a little used. Looks like he is also a backwards person as well, who prefers the oldies and bought the new fashion just because the old ones don't function anymore.

"Mr. Hibari?" Rokudou waved his hand at him "Are you alright? Did I say something bad?" he asked for the second time, the first time went unheard by Hibari, as he took out his phone from his pocket and had a frustrated look at it. He threw the phone to Rokudou, who was caught off guard by that and tried not to have it dropped on the floor, which he was successful on, after a few fail catches.

"Kufufufu.. please warn me next time" he laughed nervously as he fiddled with it then gave it back to Hibari "Now look, you have me in your contacts" he showed both phones to him "And I have you in mine" as he understood what happened, he nodded at the student in acknowledgment.  
"If you need something, or just some company, you're welcome to phone me~" he then said as he put his phone back in his pocket before leaving for real this time.

As soon as Rokudou left, Hibari sent him a message knowing he just got out of the room. What he sent was all on the RE line that it was an incomplete message 'I don't like phones be-'. Because he wasn't used to texting people either, he actually had trouble doing one. Then he received one back after a while saying 'Lol. Not on the RE line silly~'

Hibari read that message again, then thought 'The RE line?' as he realized his silly mistake, but little did he know, RE lines are not something that always need to be filled with urgent information. Being someone who wrote business letters so much, he incorporated that in my mind that every time he would send a message, he'd add the RE line with the actual converse name or case name.

Oh well, till then he might just write things wrong. But now that Hibari had Rokudou's number, he went back to his computer in attempts of actually trying to acquire background information on the odd child. Maybe Daemon knew something of him, they did have almost similar hairstyle if not Rokudou had his longer and had an eye covered rather than having a fringe of hair.

Either way, he might have to have a talk with Alaude or Daemon. Hibari didn't look forward to that, but he was still pretty curious due to Rokudou's vague details on his profile and his room didn't help him understand him a bit.  
Maybe he should keep his phone after all, it might help him find what he's looking for as well. Wait, there's Giotto he can ask as well, but talking to a student is strange. Then again, he is talking to Rokudou who's a student. The misunderstanding of an adult man liking children. How would he explain that?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rokudou laughed at the message Hibari sent him, and already concluded that he was bad with technology, which was ironic for someone who should be working on the computer all day long, and having more experience in software than him, yet can't use a phone? Hilarious.

He sent Hibari another message, this time offering to teach him how to use a phone, and laid down on his bed, looking at his phone again, seeing that he replied. "Is this for the favour?" which Rokudou looked surprised at, then messaged back "I forgot that, I'll pay you later" while thinking how much would he have to pay. It wasn't like he was hired to be his instructor or anything, but he volunteered to help him, but paying back favours are usually money involved.

He might have just made the biggest mistake he could think of, other than mistaking a pillar of stone to be someone glaring at him. But that caught him out of his worries was a reply from Hibari "I don't want money", which made Rokudou smile. That got rid of some worries there, he was frightened that Hibari would accept a money deal to begin with.

He checked his messages in case anything came from _them_, but nothing came. For some reason, he had the gut feeling that at night they would call him for something. Because it was only the evening, he decided to take a short nap and then probably be ready in case they actually do what his gut thought they'd do.

Before he put his phone on sleep, he messaged Giotto about the assignment they had, asking if he was still doing that gathering plan he had, which Giotto quickly messaged him back saying they are still doing it because even though he may or may not be done, the others most certainly are not and are going to rely on the session he held. He asked Rokudou if he was going to join them, which he replied, telling him he would, even though he was done with it already.

"_See I told you that you were smart enough to come up with something"_ was the latest message from Giotto. Rokudou didn't know how to reply other than smiling at it.

"_Lol, The same about you"_ he messaged back, before tossing his phone near the pillow, looking at the window which was next to the bed, well not next to, but a few meters away because the drawer beside it, and the curtains to avoid it from getting stuck, but the window was still visible even if he was laying down.

The night sky was as blank as the morning sky, which was contrary to people's sayings once again. They always said the night sky was dark, but had beautiful stars sparkling in the sky, along with the moon rising and lighting up the dark spots with the nocturnal light it reflected from the sun. Books told him that the moon never shone alone, not without the sun's light on it which makes it illuminated, making it look like it was a weaker sun in the dark blue sky.

More lies about the sky. Then again, someone who reminded himself of the moon itself was Hibari Kyouya. He was dark, but yet stood out to him in a group of people, like the moon standing out in the starry sky, or so what people say.

He felt embarrassed thinking about an adult like that, people will assume that he either idolizes him or actually is interested in him. He covered his mouth with his hand, trying to calm himself as he was slightly showing his embarrassment on the outside by getting a bit flustered over it.

"He's just a friend, nothing more. Like Giotto, just a friend" he told himself as he sat up, then looked at the sky again. "Maybe I'm thinking about them too much" he sighed, waking his phone from sleep to checking it again, seeing a message from Giotto which said _"Goodnight" _as it was possibly his sleeping time, so Rokudou messaged him back the same thing and then sighed again.

* * *

_**If anyone noticed why this was so quick was because I was writing this all day yesterday when I posted chapter 2. Chapter 4 may, may not be delayed**_

_**As always, any sort of feedback would be greatly appreciated~**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**AN: Rhododendron symbolizes danger and warning, if anyone's curious onto which flower it is: . **_

_**Disclaimers~: Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me, it respectfully belongs to Akira Amano.**_

* * *

_**Chapter 4: Of bad dreams and lateness**_

He found himself in a quite familiar place. Adorned in light grass, sailing clouds and cool winds, he felt like he was at peace. Seeing the small flowers under his white and clean socked feet, his shirt fluttered with the wind blowing, and his hair joined the sway as well. Long strands flowing naturally like if was born to be blown, he sat on the flowered soil, fingering a small pink flower, feeling the delicacy of the tiny little beauty.

Rokudou could tell these small flowers were baby rhododendrons. They weren't matured yet, and were waiting to be watered and fed, but yet they, like his hair, danced with the wind. He looked up to the sky, which was finally a light blue colour, being adorned by the small gold and grey rims, as if the blue and gold mixing became grey.

It was still not a bright day, but it looked like dawn. It didn't look like it was going to get any brighter than it had, even if the light still didn't touch his face, it was rather shady.

When the "sun" was supposed to rise up, it got covered by the clouds, blocking its light entirely, making it a cloudy day. The winds began to pick up its pace as the petals from the rhododendrons fluttered off its stamens and remnants of pollen flew off. As the winds grew, the clouds had already looked dark enough to look like it was blackening. The blackening continued as he looked at the final petal of a few flowers fly off it, leaving a stem with nothing on it.

He frowned as moved his knees closer to him, reaching out a petal that recently flew off, managing to lightly grasp it, only to let it go in the wind, away from him, and away from the garden.

Green and pink were soon replaced with a dull green, as the light on the leaves vanished with the pink. It was like people who had to separate from one another, leaving the other person hollow and feeling agonized.

He wondered why he compared _plants_, one of the things he loved most, to _humans_, something he didn't like so much save for a select few.

But he made no comment on it as the wind continued to blow, making it the only sound in the garden, other than one of his pair of earrings. Because it was one of the three pairs that only had hanging attachments, it clittered and clattered with the wind blowing.  
He remained seated there, staring without an expression in the direction the petals flew. Upon realizing that sitting there doing nothing was doing him no good, he stood up, dusted himself off and then began to walk in no particular direction.

As he walked, he saw three children who only looked at least four years old running happily, so he turned his head to look at them. Although he couldn't see their faces as they run in the opposite direction, he could tell they were happy little ones. One of the three children were leading them, as his short little hair swayed, almost blowing away a hat his friend wore. All three of them were wearing the same clothing, which was a white collared, black gown, with sleeves far too wide for children, shorts underneath their knee high socks, and black shoes. The children looked extremely familiar to him as he heard them laugh.

But these dreams can never always be so peaceful forever, and they never will.

When he saw the children playing among each other, he realized who they were. When he realized that, he noticed the other children were still laughing, while the other child looked sad, holding the tip of a familiar weapon. Because it didn't have the long rod part, he held onto the silver edge of it as he turned away from the happy children.

He saw three more children come by as the child left them, his small shoulders shaking as veils of crimson began to shed itself, covering the cute laughing children, soon to be revealing to be people covered in crimson, the colour of their own blood and the children were crying as their 'leader' had his back facing them. Rokudou could tell by just looking at him that his expression was empty, like his, and how he refused to tell them anything they asked for.

Even if he couldn't hear the questions, he knew what they were asking. He tried to say something to them, but even he couldn't hear his own voice as his mouth slowly moved. The children didn't seem to hear it but the leading child; Rokudou, turned around to face them. He had a smile so sad that the children who saw it were frozen with tears dripping down their small faces.

Rokudou noticed that the little Rokudou wasn't looking at them, and he froze in place. His eyes widened when he realized that the little Rokudou was looking straight at him. For once in the whole time, the only thing he heard was the little one saying "I'm sorry" before his trident reddened, even though he made no motion to move, all of the children who were following him finally crashed to the ground after losing too much blood.

The little Rokudou simply stood there, watching the people behind Rokudou began to fall like rain, making him snap his head to look infront of him, seeing all the flowers were replaced by corpses and blood adorned the once dull green, leaving a grey and red mess, with a foul stench of blood everywhere.

"We are only meant to be _corpses_" he lastly said, using the name 'Mukuro' when he said corpses, as if he was referring to himself. Rokudou made one last glance at the little Rokudou who without any movement lodged his trident's silver tip into Rokudou's heart, immediately seeing his own blood flying as he was falling.. falling.. falling..

…

Falling back into reality.

Rokudou awoken frightened, putting his heart to his chest with a lowered face. He usually had dreams which involved murder, but it never came to the point that he himself would be murdered within that dream. By he himself.

It wasn't an entirely scary- like horrifying dream, but it only scared him because it was like he actually felt all what was going on in it, like if it was a projection rather than a dream itself. He wanted to scream and cry, but he only let the sweat dampen himself as he lightened the grip on his shirt, unsure of how early it was as the sun wasn't out yet, or to him it wasn't. He never seen the sun brighten. Ever.

Once his heart stopped thundering in his chest, he looked at his phone to check for messages, which once again found nothing on. There really was no mission for the day and he had himself frantic over it. But wait..

That could also mean he was fired? Maybe they found someone else that they can use, and therefore disposed of him. No that's impossible. They can't. They won't.

Can they?

Rokudou swallowed a lump in his throat, shaking as he started texting on his phone asking _them _about any new sort of mission, after sending, he dropped his phone due to his willpower failing on him as he continued to shake. He felt a familiar feeling of coldness again as he struggled to throw himself off bed because his body was refusing, tired out by a dream that wasn't even real.

Once he managed to force himself out, he went to the bathroom, gazing at a mirror. All he saw was a teenage boy who looked really _tired_. Tired of everything he has to live with, tired of being alive. Was he even alive? He didn't even know.

He washed his sweat drenched face with cold water, feeling the icy cold liquid freeze his already cold face and letting the tap run slowly on his hands. He didn't care if his face was still wet as he watched the water flowing on his hands, and then looked again at his reflection. Still so tired looking, but this time rather than having an expressionless shaded eyes, they were filled with worry now.

He needs to stop involving himself in things he doesn't want to. But he knew that Jyoushima, Kakimoto, Dokuro, M.M and Fran would be the ones who'd suffer for his selfishness.

Quitting was never an option, and it still isn't now.

He sighed, turning off the faucet, but he kept his hand on it, the other on the counter top of the sink. He certainly did feel a lot more calmer now, the shaking subsided and he didn't look like he just woke up now, but his thoughts were still the same; scared, shaken and most likely lost.

Lost and never to be found.

He doesn't belong to a lost and found, and nor will he be able to find his way there.

Forever to be dangling from chain to chain, butterfly like eye lashes begin to veil his heterochromatic eyes. Someday if things get a little more settled with his family, he'd be able to escape the seventh hell he was going through.

Just like his name: Rokudou Mukuro. The Six Paths of Death.

He was once told that it had to do with Buddhists' belief of the cycle of death, and because he felt like he was a child who bypassed so much phases of hell, he thought it was a rather suiting name for him when he called himself that.

No one disagreed.

Because when he was asked about these different paths of hell he 'experienced', he was able to give full details of the paths, from the path of the Naraka, to Hungry Ghosts, Beasts, Demons, Humans, and finally Heavens. Upon telling them everything he 'personally saw', they were able to conclude that knowledge didn't come from any book and decided, that would also be his new name.

It was at least a better name than just numbers, as it was able to bring shivers down everyone's spines who heard that name during that time.

But that was a long past, even if people feared him now, it was because he was a stranger. Not many knew of his current skill set, and how he behaves, all they know is he is a force to be reckoned with. They only know that because the unnatural heterochromia.

It wasn't like he shown them any of it though.

He let go of the faucet and dried his face and hands which were almost dry by now, but did so anyway. Maybe someday he'll be able to change that life of his. Just maybe.

All he can do for now is continue living.

Even if it was a drag.

He stepped out of the bathroom and changed clothes, changing to a black dress shirt rather than a white v necked one, putting on a vest, then his tie and coat, with his signature belts, black pants and white socks. He'll put his boots on later, when he leaves.

Speaking of leaving.. What time was it?

He put on his watch and then put his boots on. He was pretty darn late compared to his usual waking up time. It was a Wednesday morning, so that meant he would be able to stay in his dorm for Thursday because it's a day off for him. He ran out of the room, taking whatever he needed as he locked the door as he was told then saw Giotto was waiting for him outside the building with a small smile on his face.

"Rokudou-kun, there you are" Giotto sighed out of relief upon seeing his friend, Rokudou nervously smiled "Yeah, sorry for my lateness. Did I keep you waiting" he asked, trying to look pleasant, then Giotto shook his head "You haven't. You have nothing to fear, I was only waiting for ten minutes" then Rokudou frowned, and Giotto looked confused

"Did I say something wrong, Rokudou-kun?" he asked, looking truly concerned, so Rokudou waved his hands while shaking his head "No, just feeling a bit bad for making you wait all this time" then Giotto smiled "Rokudou-kun. Don't feel bad, friends wait for each other all the time, it's a routine thing" he reassured, Rokudou looked confused then, but smiled at the blond "Thanks for understanding" he said as they both walked over to the school building.

Giotto didn't tell him, but he noticed that Rokudou looked a lot more down spirited than he already had looked. Sure, Rokudou did have a sad look for most point, but today he looked a lot more than usual, and Giotto wasn't someone who'd force people to look more pleasant when they are not in the mood for it, so he kept it quiet.

Rokudou knew Giotto was looking at him from time to time, but he didn't want to ask, because he thought it to be embarrassing to ask him about anything unrelated to homework. So he decided to spring up a conversation "So.. The assignment" he started, before awkwardly looking away, then to Giotto "Hm. The group would be doing it today, I'm glad you'll be able to join us, Rokudou-kun" the blond replied with a smile, making Rokudou look away with a slight blush "I'm sorry Rokudou-kun, I might be embarrassing you, but I'm really glad to have you working with us" Rokudou then looked back at him "Ah, n-no. Its fine, just a foreign feeling" Giotto smiled again "You're not used to having friends, aren't you?" to avoid speaking too much, Rokudou nodded.

"Well, remember this then" Giotto walked faster and stopped infront of him "You'll always be our friend, alright?" Rokudou smiled "Even if you just got to know me in a day?" Giotto laughed "You don't have to know friends for so long to count them as a friend, you may only know them for two seconds and still call them a friend" he then went behind Rokudou and pushed him forward even if they were still walking. "H-Hey, no need to push me, I'm walking, I'm walking" feeling more embarrassed, he almost fell because he was losing his footing.  
"Can't be helped, lean bones" Giotto teased as he went to the door "I'll even make sure you eat fine, you're too light, I believe even Sasagawa Kyouko chan can pick you up with no problem" he said as held the door knob, Rokudou just stared surprised at him "And no, putting on layers only makes you look more thin, Rokudou-kun" he scolded.

Now Giotto was just downright embarrassing him. He was aware of his bad weight because he refuses to spend a lot of money on himself other than a required amount to keep him alive, but not to keep himself at a really good rate. He was a light weight after all, but it wasn't like Giotto was some big guy himself, even he looked pretty thin for a short boy his hair looked like it had everything it needed as it was always in style.

When Giotto opened the door, he saw everyone turned their heads over to him and waved, some said "Good morning" to him, as he returned the gesture by greeting them back and waving at them, motioning Rokudou to stop hesitating and come inside.

Rokudou awkwardly waved his hand as they all returned it to him as well. He noted that Gokudera, the one who skips a lot, was there too, and was scolding everyone for their "Lack of enthusiasm in greeting him" which made Giotto laugh

"It's alright, Gokudera-kun, they said it just well. There's no special requirement after all, I'm no king" he said after laughing and sitting down, Rokudou didn't know where to sit so Kurokawa motioned him to sit beside her as that seat was empty, and Gokudera was with Giotto, along with Yamamoto.

"By the way, Yamamoto kun, how's Lambo kun doing?" Giotto asked as he took out his notebook "Oh he's doing fine, he said he made a new friend with a shy girl" at the mention of 'shy girl' Rokudou looked up at Yamamoto "_Chrome?"_ he thought as he looked, suddenly interested in what the black haired man was talking about.

"Yeah, he treated her to some lunch one time because she looked so hungry at one point, and they became friends after she helped him with homework" Yamamoto said, not noticing that Rokudou was still glancing at him from his notes.

Rokudou had a brow raised '_That sounds a bit how I met Giotto'_ then looked at the time again. Wasn't he a bit late today? Why was it still feeling like it was so early?

It was around eleven o'clock when Giotto and Rokudou made it to the study rooms, and time from then seemed to pass for eternities as they all chatted around, pointing each other's mistakes and giving each other advice on how to fix those errors.  
Kurokawa noticed that Rokudou wasn't really noting anything down as she looked over to him "You already have it done, don't you?" she asked with a smile "Kufu.. Yeah, seems so" he replied, looking at his own notes, suddenly thinking he might've missed something. "Would you let us see it? I'll show you mine" She asked, showing her book to him, making him give his to her.

"Kyouko-chan, look at his handwriting" she said as soon as she started reading, Sasagawa looked over her shoulder and smiled "Hana-chan, you should tell him directly that he has good handwriting" Kurokawa raised a brow "That's why I'm showing it to you" she pointed out, making Sasagawa giggle as she turned her gaze from the book to Rokudou

"Rokudou-kun, you have really nice handwriting" Sasagawa said with a smile on her ever smiling face, and Rokudou smiled back "Thanks" he said as they went back to revising. He thought Kurokawa's sounded a little morbid with her writing, but it matched her personality of being a bit of a sarcastic one, who makes the best morbidity in his point of view.

Kurokawa thought Rokudou sounded very elegant with his style of writing, which was similar to Giotto, except for some reason, his book smelled flowery. Now Kurokawa wasn't the person who loved flowers and stuff like that, but the book didn't have a bad smell to it, in her thoughts. She just found it unique, but not too interesting. Maybe he had flower perfumes, she began to think and started laughing.

Everyone looked up at her, but she threatened to hit them if they kept it up so they looked away, as they went back to revisions. Giotto helped out the most when it came to grammar mistakes that the others asked about, while Gokudera fixed punctuations, as he already done it himself. His was well written, except some things were too descriptive, so they had it cut a bit, to a more considerable level.

Rokudou for most point kept himself quiet until he was pointed out for having a good flowing tone, so they had him help them with the tone of voice in their paragraphs. He added a few more notes on his as well, even if they said it wasn't necessary. The only one who actually had to add more was Yamamoto and Miura, who's paragraphs sometimes were going off or too short.

~Little time pass~

They were done within a half an hour, everyone's paragraphs at least reaching a page's length. They decided to go to the Marketplace, or otherwise called the Cafeteria for easy words to have a break.

It was almost time for lunch, and there were not so so many people there, but there was a considerable amount of people, but it didn't fill in the huge spaces within the room. Giotto got a bench spot which filled his group up, not leaving a single member behind.

"So, now what do you want to do?" Giotto asked as he sat down again, seeing as everyone filed in as well. "Giotto san, do you want to get something to eat?" Miura asked as she stood up "That's alright, thank you Haru san" he bowed as he sat, she went over to buy a little snack, Yamamoto and Kurokawa following her. Kurokawa because she just wanted to look and mock the quality of things there.

Rokudou checked his phone for messages, seeing one from Kakimoto asking how he's bringing himself up. He quickly replied with a vague message, just telling him he was alright, and that he was in the college building right now, having class in another hour. He went back to an expressionless face when he messaged him, and received another which said something along the lines of 'Please take care of yourself as well' to which Rokudou had a slight twitch on his mouth, lowering the same second. For no real reason, Giotto observed, before finding it rude to stare, so he checked his message and saw one from his uncle, otherwise known as the Vice Principal, Sawada Tsunayoshi.

They all looked up to the speaker when they heard "Sawada Ieyasu, please report to the Vice Principal's office, Sawada Ieyasu" then it shut off. Giotto had a sweat rolling down his cheek as he stood up "Sorry guys, I'll be back" he waved at them, Rokudou raised a brow "_Sawada Ieyasu?_" was that his real name? Then what about Giotto?

Everyone calls him 'Giotto', even the teachers, even if they knew him for just a day.

"Sawada Ieyasu" Rokudou said, then Giotto looked down at the seated Rokudou "Rokudou-kun, please continue calling me 'Giotto'. My uncle can't help but still call me by my name, and it confuses everyone" he smiled, looking clearly troubled. Rokudou nodded as Giotto went away from the Cafeteria just when Kurokawa, Yamamoto and Miura came back.

"Ah, where's Giotto-san going?" Miura asked as she looked at him when he was leaving, still walking to the table. "Oh, there was an announcement for him" Rokudou shrugged as she understood something he didn't. "Only the third day and he's already so busy" She commented, followed by Kurokawa's comment "Well he _is_ Mr. Sawada's nephew. They're busy people" while shrugging.

Rokudou then looked at his contacts and then decided to text Hibari just for the hell of it. He smiled when he received an immediate response from him, so he began chatting with him over texts.

Giotto came back sometime later, looking a little uncertain, but when he came closer to his friends' table, he went back to plastering a pleasant looking face. Rokudou could tell by glancing that he was trying to look fine about everything, but he was thinking hard about something. He could tell because he does the same thing most of the time, including today.

Rokudou stopped chatting with Hibari because he replied with a 'Going for a nap, talk to you later', Rokudou responded with 'sleep well' before putting his phone back. "Rokudou-kun" as soon as he put his phone back he looked up to Giotto who was sitting again "Sorry to bother you if you were still talking to them, you looked so excited" he apologized as he saw Rokudou looking curiously at him once he called him. "It's fine, he just went for a nap just now" he shrugged.

Once they all regrouped again, they begun to talk about a lot of things, and everyone had a chance to actually speak out what they were wanting to say. Rokudou was amazed by how easily Giotto was able to manage that, because usually in a group chat, one or three get left behind, but Giotto has a way to pull them back in just right. He really was a powerful one, he noted. Maybe that was why the tough Gokudera even looked up to him, even though he should be literally and metaphorically looking down on him.

Rokudou didn't have much to say, but nonetheless kept a smile as everyone chatted. He was brought up a few times by Giotto who asked him a few things, and those were one of the times he began to talk, realizing it was fine to be chatty with friends, as long as they listen to you, which this group managed very well. He then heard his phone ringing and quickly excused himself as he ran out of the cafeteria to attend the call.

Once he was far from everyone, technically in a bathroom stall, he began to speak on it "Rokudou Mukuro reporting." he breathed out, keeping the phone close to his ear as the one who phoned continued to speak. "A teenage?" he asked, not realizing the inaudibility of his voice as he heard the details and received an email of the same thing as well.

He looked at the photo of who it was, showing a white haired person with a playful smile on his face. He had a strange marking on his left eye, which was one of the most distinctive feature about him. This boy was named Byakuran, and was known for being in a rich family called the Gesso. Currently he was travelling from his team the Millefiore back to home, so Rokudou's job was to protect him till he reaches his destination. The mission might take him a day, and the payment was rather high, so he considered taking it even if he can't do it. At least he had a day off tomorrow, which was the assigned time.

He wasn't sure if he could tell Giotto about this, but he might have to make an excuse if he asked him about something. He went back to them within a few minutes, and once again Giotto asked him if he wanted to hang out with them on Thursday, which was tomorrow. Rokudou wouldn't have minded going just for browsing, but because of this _job_ he had, he had to refuse it saying he has family plans, which Giotto didn't press further because family matters are better left confidential, like for example his family stuff. If he never told anyone of it, then why should Rokudou?

They all went to class shortly, and Rokudou had his phone off so that he won't disrupt the class, but seeing as though almost everyone was on their phones, it didn't look like it mattered, but because of his worry about them phoning him again, he didn't turn his phone on.

Instead he just listened to the lecture, seeing that Gokudera was taking notes, and Yamamoto almost fell asleep, Giotto just had his hands on his lap, hearing every word the teacher was saying, Kurokawa was looking bored but was listening here and there, Miura took notes as well as Sasagawa, who looked the most diligent out of the girls in class.

Rokudou then lost his thoughts thinking about Dokuro who was attending Namimori High because of the cleanliness which was good for her, again he was the one paying for her, which was why he was mostly concerned about her when it came to her schooling.

No, he wasn't overly protective, but he wanted to make sure that she didn't come across bad people, not in an obnoxious way, but as a brother would protect their sister when she needed it. The teacher then stopped as she took a look at Rokudou

"Rokudou-kun, was it?" he looked as he was being addressed "Are you feeling alright?" she went over to his desk, he nodded to her "You look a little ill, should I get something for you? Can you stand?" she began to ask, clearly evident that she was concerned for her student's well-being. "I'm fine, really" he tried saying, but then she had the health committee called, speaking of an ill-looking student who needed their attention.

Rokudou sighed. It wasn't like she wasn't listening to him, but she wasn't listening to him when he said he was fine. Giotto worriedly glanced at him, and noticed he did look a lot paler than he was. Like he was naturally pale, but right now he wasn't sure if he even had skin.

The teacher finished her call, snapping her hair behind as she heard a loud thud, followed by Giotto calling him. "Rokudou-kun!"  
She went away from the phone to Rokudou who apparently fell off his desk and immediately called a few students to help him out to the health committee, which Yamamoto and Kurokawa volunteered, refusing to let Giotto do it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Just a little issue of low blood pressure" one of the members outlined to Yamamoto and the teacher who ended up coming by as well, since she put the students on a fifteen minute break. "Has he eaten anything today?" the student asked, looking at either the teacher or Yamamoto. The teacher also looked at Yamamoto because she didn't know "I don't think he has" Yamamoto smiled, troubled. The student gave him a blank look as he adjusted his clipboard, "That would explain it, when he wakes up, we'll give him something to eat" the student reassured, leaving the room. Giotto was at the door, waiting patiently

"Is he alright?" he asked as he came inside after the student left "Yeah, just a little blood pressure issue" Giotto sighed in relief. "Not too serious, is it?" he asked, looking at his phone afterward, the teacher shook her head "Thankfully. Do you know any of his relatives that could probably take him home?" Giotto looked at her for a few seconds before responding "No, he doesn't have.. relatives who live with him" which was why he went to Hibari's number and called him to take care of Rokudou when he will be discharged from the room.

Giotto looked less than done when he was talking to Hibari, who probably was refusing because he was doing something else, or simply being a rude one, or so what Giotto says. Rokudou opened his eyes and sat up, looking at the three "Ah, Ms. Kisaragi, Giotto kun and Yamamoto kun, aren't we in class?" before laying back down because he jolted awake once again, rather than slowly letting the blood flow.

"Rokudou-kun, it's alright. I'll have Giotto-kun here get the notes for you for today's class, but now that you're awake, please have something to eat. The doctor here recommended that" she advised him, as he frowned. As if he'd waste money on food here, it's a rip off artist! "I called Mr. Hibari over, he should be arriving in a few minutes" Giotto responded then, looking in the range of pity and laughter.

"Mr. Hibari?" Rokudou looked at him, perplexed. "Yeah, he said he'll be here in.." he looked at the door to see Hibari coming in "Right now" he smiled as Hibari reached for Giotto's head "Calling me on my sleep" he grumbled, tightly grabbing Giotto's head as Giotto laughed nervously "Mr. Hibari, don't tell me it's _not_ an emergency. It was a legitimate reason" he still laughed as the pressure, and the teacher tried intervening between them

"Okay fine. I'll take Rokudou Mukuro back" he replied, letting go of Giotto's head before casting a glance at Rokudou, who blinked at him a few times. "Oi, can you stand?" he asked, looking straight at him, Rokudou nodded as he sat up, slowly this time, before standing. Hibari noticed he was still a bit wobbly, so when Kisaragi made him sit down again, he lowered himself to his level, back facing his.

Rokudou looked startled at first, until Hibari said "Come on", making Rokudou feel blood rushing through his head as he felt embarrassed. He bit his lip but then slowly got onto Hibari's back, who held him like a piggy back ride. Kisaragi then told Giotto and Yamamoto to come back to class with her as she told Hibari to take care of Rokudou who then said "Who said.. I'm taking care of him?"

~Some time later~

Because Rokudou's dorm room was locked this time, and Rokudou didn't look in a state to be waking up, Hibari had him in his couch in the office because he still had work to do. He had him covered in a blanket, and in case he ran with a fever, a towel was placed on his head.

Hibari simply watched for a few minutes as Rokudou slept. He was able to get a good detail on what he looked, now that he wasn't distracted by him, who always asked a question whenever he tried to study him.

The reports that he received from his personal research yesterday were proving to be correct though. After receiving his phone number yesterday, he conducted a quick research on him, finding the family doctor who tends to him and his 'friends', better called siblings, and found medical reports on him as well.

He wasn't able to get a total backstory, but he got things that explained his health and lifestyle, current lifestyle that is, not the one by the time he was twelve, but only when he was thirteen, when Dokuro was around eleven, when they started her medication.

The report said Rokudou was someone of pretty weak health, and sometimes would get blood loss because of his malnutrition that he refuses to treat even when the doctors told him to. Whenever he was asked as to why he never treated it was simple

"It's a waste of money" they quoted on his record, as he said that quite a lot whenever they asked him, so they thought it was noteworthy. They wanted him to go under therapy for better self-care, but he again refused saying too much to spend money on.  
A lot of reasons that Rokudou said were either "waste of time" or "not enough money for it" or "can't afford it". It made him think Rokudou was actually someone who didn't have a lot of money for things. Where he made money he wasn't sure because it wasn't written about any employment, nor was it government provided.

But now he was dead set to know what kind of job Rokudou does to get the money he gets for Dokuro's treatment, as well as their well-care. Hibari then thought, perhaps he could help out this child, who seemed more of a child to him now, considering he never looked at him as an adult yet, but he looked at him as a child with too much responsibility thrown on lean shoulders.

It was too much for him. Whatever he was doing.

Then Alaude knocked on his door, making him go and open it for him. He had a tray with him, and of course greeted Hibari with the blankest of looks, much like his own "Sawada said your guest is not feeling well, so he brought this over" he simply replied as he gave the taller man the tray. "Please do keep up with your work, however, it is helpful" he then said before leaving, and Hibari raised a brow at that comment. Maybe Alaude felt bad about not saying anything to him. Or that was his way of saying 'Thanks for the hard work'.

Hibari set the tray on one of the desks and moved it close to Rokudou, who didn't seem to respond to it. Hibari wondered if he was even breathing, because he was breathing ever so slowly. "Is your sky blue?" he then asked as he removed the towel off his head, knowing he wouldn't get a response.

But he did, he received a smile from Rokudou who was resting. Hibari wondered if it was something he dreamt of, or he actually heard that comment and replying with a smile.

_~pov switch~_

Unbeknownst to Hibari, Rokudou while he was sleeping then had a dream that was something similar to what he had in the morning, which was like a repeat of the morning, except Hibari was there rather than his younger self, and he was still in the peaceful grounds, seeing the sky rain actual water rather the scarlet rain that happened in his previous dream, the sky was clearing by a little bit, rather than the absolute greyness that he always saw. Rokudou looked at Hibari who put a few of the flowers in his hair and asked "Is your sky blue?" to which made him really smile as he wasn't sure if he said it out loud or just in the dream, but it made him feel happier as his dream-self began to see the sky clearing by a little, and put him on ease if not just for a few hours, but it was all the time he needed for being prepared for tomorrow.

By the time it was evening, he woke up again, this time feeling a bit better than before, as he sat up, realizing he was on a black leather couch, and that it was long enough to have extra space for him rather than him filling all the space on it.

He turned himself over to be sitting with his feet dangling on the floor, glancing at Hibari who was typing something on a computer, having reading glasses on him. Hibari noticed his glance and then stopped typing, and walked over to him. Rokudou gulped as he saw him come by with an indifferent look, until he felt his hand on his forehead did he relax.

"Hm, no fever" he simply said before removing his hand off him. Rokudou looked a little confused until Hibari put the tray on Rokudou's lap. "Here, Sawada said you have to eat it" he said when he was receiving a confused look again. Rokudou said nothing but stared at the tray, which had at least three sandwiches, and a drink of tea, coffee? Rokudou checked that one to confirm; green tea.

He looked at Hibari, who waited for him "If you're not going to eat, I'm going to shove it down your throat" he said after a few minutes of awkward glancing. Rokudou smiled "I hope you're not serious" but by the look on Hibari's face, it said anything but jokes. So he slowly broke one of the sandwiches apart, making a final look at Hibari who wasn't looking anymore and ate parts of it, after saying a small 'thanks for the meal' they would traditionally do.

After finishing one, he put the tray back on the table, looking at Hibari "Do I owe you again?" who smiled at him "Who knows"

* * *

_**AN: I do hope that people not think Giotto is in love with Rokudou, theirs is only a friendship thing, like you know those best friend figures in anime? Yeah, Giotto is those people.**_

_**Aaand as always, any sort of feedback would be greatly appreciated~ **_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Forgive me for the lateness, have a long worded chapter~**_

* * *

_**Chapter 5: Of bad news **_

Rokudou had himself staying at the office with Hibari because of his bad condition. Hibari was told not to let him run around until the next morning, so he was supposed to babysit him for a few hours. Hibari's personal home was not too far away from his office, but he didn't want to leave his work behind now that he was able to figure out some of the things he couldn't earlier.

Rokudou unsurprisingly was a well behaved child, but still got on Hibari's nerves for being a quietly studying child. Why did he have to take care of a difficult child in the first place? He's seventeen, he managed to move here, he should be able to manage himself well.

Unless he was forced to go, then that was a different story.

Occasionally from his desk, he made a few peeks away from the screen of his computer to Rokudou because he was being far too quiet for his own good. He noted that Rokudou was the kind to have himself swallowed in a book, rather than those kids who bother one another for wanting to do "something fun in a boring office"

Just now he even peeked from his screen to Rokudou, finding Rokudou to glance right back at him without turning his head over. When he noticed that both were in fact leering at each other now, he looked away, he doing the same.

Rokudou still looked pretty pale, and his eyes spoke days of tiredness, but he looked a bit happy, rather than indifferent. It was probably the façade he puts up whenever he was around the office man. Either way Hibari didn't bother asking him of it because they're not that familiar with each other.

It's only been three days after all.

Rokudou smiled at him when he looked away, but then resumed to reading quietly. Hibari felt like face palming, but instead he stood up and walked over to Rokudou, putting the white blanket on his shoulders. He looked up and met with steel coloured eyes "You're shaking" he replied to confused eyes. Rokudou nodded, pulling the light blanket. "So.. Are you going to just sit there and read or are you going to answer a few things?" he asked Rokudou, who resumed reading to put a bookmark in his book and smile at him

"Kufu.. What kind of answers do you want?" he asked back, watching as Hibari went to sit on the chair opposing him, removing his reading glasses. "These are not for my personal use" he clarified, making Rokudou frown "So are you even interested in me?" Hibari 'tch'ed at that, "Just answer these" the student sighed.

"Alright, fire away" once he put his book back, he placed his hands on his lap, giving Hibari his full attention. "Question 1: Who do you live with?" Rokudou tried not to sigh at that again "My..self?" he answered uncertainly, Hibari shook his head "before you moved here" then Rokudou gave him a peculiar look, before smiling "A few friends I picked on the way. I haven't adopted them, but we—they live in an abandoned residence" he answered, knowing that he can't say he adopted them because he was too young to adopt children without parent supervision.

"Question 2: Do you have some medical condition?" he asked, eyeing the eye that was hidden again. Being one of the people who thought it was unusual to have heterochromia with strange numbering in an eye, it was to fill his curiosity "Not me" Rokudou answered with a smile "Next question?" he asked, again aware of the fact that he doesn't have to mention Dokuro or the others' conditions because it specifically asked his only.

"Question 3.." he trailed before noticing that Rokudou didn't touch the tray of food which probably gotten cold by now. "Do you have an employment status? Where do you receive income?" he noticed that Rokudou looked a bit off. "That's confidential information." He quickly answered, making Hibari raise a brow "Why's that?" Rokudou looked away "Because they said so" then looked at Hibari again "Something else?" Hibari lowered his eyes "this is a personal one" he warned, Rokudou smiled uncertainly

"If you had the chance to live with someone, would you consider it?" Rokudou now looked confused, like if Hibari is randomly picking out questions off the top of his head "Is this for some project of yours?" he asked, Hibari lowered his eyes "No, it's just a thought" then Rokudou started to think, even though he looked like he needed actual time to think about it, he immediately answered "No, it's too much of a burden to have someone living with me" without a second thought. Hibari wondered if the question even went through his head.

"I can't live with people now that I live in a dorm" he smiled sympathetically at Hibari, who just clicked his tongue. "Are you busy tomorrow?" was Hibari's last question as he stood up, Rokudou watched him as he walked a few steps away from the chair he was sitting on, looking down at the student.

"Yes. I have something to do tomorrow." He said looking away from the man standing, only to smile again at him "Were you wanting to go out with me or something?" Hibari had a comical angry tick on his head when he asked about that. "Out? With a brat like you? Over my dead body" he snapped as Rokudou laughed.

Even though Rokudou was laughing, Hibari sensed a small feeling of sadness coming from the child. Was he actually hurt by what he had said to him? "What's the something you have to do?" he asked, trying to remove whatever thought he had. He received no answer from Rokudou, who looked at the tray he left on the chair.

"It's probably cold by now, don't bother" he said, although he made no action on removing the tray from the table. He checked the time before looking back at Rokudou, who was once again smiling at him.

Does he ever stop smiling? Who knew.

"It's just college work" he lied, but Hibari believed it anyway, once again knowing even if he asked for a different answer, he won't receive any.

"Well, it's around 8 pm. What's your curfew?" he asked, yawning. Rokudou looked at the window "Um.. I sleep at around 9:30 pm" he answered, wondering if it was too late or too early. Hibari raised a brow, but then remembered how early students usually wake up, it was understandable, yet..

"That's early" he absentmindedly said. "Are you planning on going back now?" he asked, closing the blinds on the window, but left the window itself open. Rokudou nodded in response, then Hibari came back to the chair, staring at Rokudou with blank eyes "Wait here for another half an hour, I'm getting something done" the student tilted his head "Eh. Why shouldn't I just go back?" he asked, receiving a death glare from Hibari, which made him shrink on the chair, pulling the blanket closer.

"Your college doctor said 'Don't leave him out of your sight until tomorrow.'" He excluded the 'but tomorrow, make sure to keep tabs on him because he might be careless and have more symptoms' because he had a gut feeling that Rokudou will be suspicious of him even more than he is of him possibly right now. "Ah I see" Rokudou quietly said, obviously being amused by it. "Oh well, you can finish what you have to, I won't bug you" he waved at Hibari to work, which he did by going back to his desk and typing something. Then Rokudou got up and walked over to him.

For once in his life, he didn't care about anything he was doing as he stood behind Hibari, looking at the screen and what Hibari was writing. Even though he didn't understand it, he observed Hibari's actions of removing a few text, to adding other, checking another tab, and then closing another. It was like either Hibari knew he was there and didn't care, or he didn't even notice.

His bet was that Hibari didn't notice him there, because he looked like someone who didn't bother finding out if there was someone behind him or not. Rokudou pointed at something Hibari wrote on an excel document asking "What does that mean?" Hibari looked over at him with lowered glasses to which Rokudou didn't know when he put them on, but then heard him answer "It means we're taking that much time" Rokudou's mouth made an O face, before looking at something else and pointing there "Is that a typo?" he pointed at a certain name, Hibari then looked at it before correcting it wordlessly.

He picked on many other things before Hibari then turned his chair "Alright, are you just bored or just trying to bug me?" he asked, showing clear annoyance even though he was thankful that Rokudou pointed out some of the errors he made "A bit of both" he smiled, Hibari rolled his eyes.

"I'm almost done, so just sit.. there" he pointed at a spot to sit, so Rokudou did so without a second thought. _"At least he's obedient"_ he thought to himself as he went back to finishing up. Rokudou moved his feet around in a sense of waiting, making Hibari glance at him and think _"He's a college student. Right?"_ because to him, he couldn't see him anything but a high school student.

Once he was done, he turned off the computer and organized some of the paper on his desk, looking back at Rokudou, who was looking elsewhere. He removed his reading glasses again, putting it in its case and into his desk drawer. "Alright, we're going to my house, come on if you're ready" Rokudou looked at him, rather embarrassed "What's with that look?" he asked, wanting to punch on the head.

"I've.. never been to someone's home before" he fiddled with his hands on his lap, making Hibari stare at him "You've been in this office. Think of that as someone's home" instead of punching him like he wanted to, he ruffled Rokudou's head "It's not as unwelcoming as you believe it would be" Rokudou looked up at him, noticing Hibari wasn't looking at him, but rather at a shelf in the room. "If you're welcomed to the office.. you're welcome at home" when he said the last bit, he looked down at Rokudou who was still bewildered at him. Rokudou then smiled genuinely "Thanks, Mr. Hibari" Hibari noticed a little shade of red appeared on Rokudou's face as he smiled, and had a slight smile back.

"Children like you shouldn't believe in depressing thoughts like that" he advised, and Rokudou heard the foreign softness in his voice, something he didn't think he'd hear. "Ahn.." he responded, unsure of what to actually reply with. "Rokudou Mukuro. We've only met for three days, but know that I would have my doors open." His ruffling became gentler with every word he was saying, seeing as though Rokudou was looking at him like a lost child.

"Now, get yourself ready, we'll leave in five minutes" he moved his hand off him as he went to the door, seeing as Rokudou put a hand on his head where it was patted, before picking his bag and following Hibari out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they were leaving the office, Rokudou saw Hibari signing out and then bidding goodbye to those who were still present, they doing the same. Some of the full-timers there glanced at Rokudou, because some knew he was a student of Namimori Academy, but some weren't aware, and thought he was some nephew of Hibari's as he was following him wherever he was going, stopped whenever he told him, and then was led by him, but none bothered to ask Hibari because of his intimidating self.

When they got out, he saw the street lights were all on, brightening up the dark road outside, seeing as though a few cars were passing by. They went into the parking lot, where he saw a few people were driving their way out of the lot. He still felt odd about having to go to someone else's home because it wasn't his, and he felt like he didn't belong to places which weren't his.

Which would explain why he was fidgety about going.

He stopped walking when Hibari stopped, and saw him press something and then saw a car light flash. Because he never had a car, he wasn't sure why it did that, but he shrugged it off as Hibari motioned him to follow him again, as he walked behind him to the black car that flashed.

The car had three back seats, along with a front seat and a driver's seat, as far as Rokudou could see the car. It was black coloured, and the internal was a light brown colour. It seemed roomy for something he never seen before.

Yes yes, Rokudou has never been in a car before, so he was confused about it. Sure, he was in a moving van, or a pickup truck, but never someone's car as casually as he was going to right now. Hibari opened the driver's seat and got in. He stared at Rokudou who was still looking at the window, which had a purple colour which should've covered most of the view from the outside, but Rokudou saw through it because of the windshield infront.

"Are you coming in?" he asked superficially, then Rokudou looked at him, before hesitating. He opened the door slowly, making Hibari think again _"Is he __**really**__a college student?_" before seeing him come inside, putting his bag on his lap. "Fasten your seatbelt" he advised, pointing at his own, then showing Rokudou where was his. Rokudou put on the seatbelt, then looked at Hibari, who nodded then started the car. Rokudou closed his door then sat there, waiting for Hibari to either do or say something. Hibari turned on the radio as the car turned on, and began to drive out of the parking lot.

Rokudou noted that cars are still pretty useful, but bad for environmental students as it releases a lot of carbon dioxide. He also noted that Hibari is a really careful person compared to what he heard cars do; crashing into one another because of recklessness, or someone just plain drunk.

Hibari continued driving at a normal pace, as he held the steering wheel with one hand, before pointing at something ahead, without looking at Rokudou as it was a rule to keep your eyes on the road "That's where I live. Just a few minutes away" he boredly said, Rokudou looked from him to the street which had a lot of small but clean looking townhouses. He followed where Hibari's finger pointed before that hand went on the steering wheel as well, seeing a dark maroon roofed house.

"The maroon roofed one, right?" Hibari nodded when he heard the question. "It seems like a nice place" Rokudou looked at him with a slight smile, Hibari shrugged "Everything in Namimori is 'nice', which is why I live here" Rokudou could tell that was Hibari's way of saying thank you. Though he wasn't sure about Hibari actually liking _all_ of Namimori, or just his home and the school building, so he was about to ask until he actually received an answer without having to ask.  
"I grew up with Namimori. Anywhere in Namimori is mine, as I belong to Namimori" Rokudou smiled gently on the outside, but on the inside thought _"Whoa, that's weird"_ as he giggled on his seat, as Hibari turned the car to the left "And the funny part was..?" he glanced at Rokudou for a second, then looked back at the road "Sorry, just my first time hearing something like that" Hibari made no response after as he began to lower the car speed for parking.

When he finished parking, he stopped the car and unfastened his seat belt, Rokudou doing the same after seeing him do it, and then got out of the car, making sure they had everything before watching as Hibari went ahead to the door of his house, unlocking the door. Rokudou took a moment to view the front yard, seeing the green grass now darkened because of the night.

Then he looked over to Hibari who was already inside, waiting for him to come in with a blankly confused look, so Rokudou walked over inside, seeing as Hibari closed the door and then locked it when he got in.

For a seemingly alone person like Hibari, his house was large. From the exterior it just looked like a regular townhouse, but on the inside, it was like he was some heir to some prestigious family. Who knows he might just be.

With gold laces around the walls hung hardwood framed portraits of people Rokudou didn't know of, standing proudly as their power even stood out from the picture like if they were real people standing infront of him. There was one thing that he was certain of:

They were Hibari's relatives. With eyes as steel as his, and gaze as piercing as heavy darts, Rokudou never thought he would see more people with terrifying gazes. Now he felt like a sheep which was caught by a pack of hungry wolves. He wondered when the people in the pictures would just come out and attack him, with full murderous intent for no apparent reason, or maybe for trespassing.

With this freight, he felt dizzy again, seeing as all the photos were bringing back thoughts into him. Thoughts of about poachers, scary violent, ruthless people possibly charging at him. Hibari being quite the perceptive one, saw Rokudou's eyes losing a bit of the gleam it had and immediately was able to tell he was losing him again, so he took him by the hand and darted out of the large hallways, seeing as Rokudou stopped gazing at the photos to their feet, making sure he doesn't step on anything.

For Hibari it was an unusual reaction which Rokudou did. Usually people would point at the photos and say "He's your father right?" or comments such as these, not a person feeling the sudden hostility and tiring himself at the sight of them. That used to be an old reaction of _his_ when he was much younger. He didn't think others would be seeing the same.

He led Rokudou to a room which the student had assumed was his, and was thrown to the bed, as he seated himself on the edge of it. He saw the student bounce back because of the hard push contacting a soft surface, which rather than letting him sink in, pushed him back because of his light weight.  
Rokudou felt fear of what was going to happen, except nothing came at him. Rather, Hibari just sat there at the edge, looking softly at him, with lowered eyes and his fronts almost having it covered if it could've been longer.

What he once again didn't expect was a laugh escaping the older man's lips. He looked at him with an unchanging gaze of fear, until he heard him talk. "You really are young" Rokudou looked at him as if he finally came back to earth "When I was younger than you, I thought they would come out of the picture and murder me. For being.. me" Hibari saw Rokudou's eyes softened and overall his skin came back to his unhealthily pale face. As if finally registering everything, Rokudou then laughed.

Hibari had a slight smile when he saw Rokudou relax and begin to laugh, seeing as he sat up. "Ironically, you inherited that look of theirs" he replied, putting a hand near his mouth as he laughed, Hibari raised his lowered head "Do you think I'll murder you someday?" he asked with a brow raised, to which Rokudou smiled at "Like right now? That's what I thought" and didn't seem as surprised when he saw Hibari smile at that answer.

Hibari wanted to continue on with the topic, but he wasn't sure what else to say, and he wasn't all that sure if Rokudou was interested. Unlike his usual mistrust towards people, he trusted Rokudou, and that was why he let him in his house.  
He was once told a metaphor by Giotto that 'once you lead someone into your house, you are leading them to your heart as a house is the window of the heart and what a person can be on the inside.'

Mostly why homes can be warm even if heat isn't on.

Hibari wondered why he took that student's advice, knowing that he was several years younger than him, but how mature he was for someone so youthful as him, it secretly inspired Hibari, seeing as Giotto's uncle Sawada Tsunayoshi is like.. the opposite.

Just how are they uncle and nephew? No one can really tell.

Rokudou simply sat there like an obedient dog, looking around the room, and Hibari couldn't tell whether Rokudou was those really restraint but 'good' guests, or just those who are waiting to cause trouble after putting an innocent front.

He went with the latter, but when he remembered seeing fear in his eyes when he saw the family portraits.. He might not be able to misbehave when 'frightening' people lurk in this house.

"I'll think about killing you.. If you're a troublesome one" he suddenly said, looking at nowhere in particular, and making Rokudou look at him, with a smile wiped straight off his face. Hibari couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he didn't bother asking. It wasn't like him to be so curious about lifestyles of others anyway, it was only for work purposes earlier.

That's right, just work purposes.

But yet.. Sometimes he'd get this feeling of wanting to protect the student from something. He didn't know what this something was, but he knew it was something pretty bad, and it was damaging the student in ways he can't think of.

"In that case, you're free at any time" Rokudou had an uneasy smile on his face, but his eyes spoke volumes of determination. Full permission to do what he possibly needed. Hibari was confused about that, but once again, he didn't ask of it. "When you come, I won't run from you" he then noticed Rokudou's eyes lower, no longer looking at him as he almost whispered when he had spoken. Hibari himself barely heard it, but he trusted his ears that he heard exactly what he heard

_When you come, I won't run from you_

Suspicion already was high in Hibari when it came to Rokudou and what he used to do for habits, but now it just increased because of the seemingly remorseful look and tone of his voice. But more than anything, Hibari felt bad for him, without knowing the true reason to feeling that, he just had another gut feeling.

Almost all of his thoughts about Rokudou were just gut feelings after all.

Unless that explains something else that never came in his wording choice.

Either way he wasn't all too sure of it as he let Rokudou sit silently on the bed. There was a pause between them, neither wanted to say something of anything, and that was when Hibari looked at the bed

"Sleep here for today" he avoided looking at the one sapphire eye looking up at him as he mentioned sleep. "Where would you..?" he heard him ask, to which he looked at the student with a bored-like expression "Somewhere else" he saw a look in Rokudou's eyes, then returned it with a blanker looking one "In the house, of course" then Rokudou's slightly smiled.

"Its fine, I'll sleep on the floor" he let himself off the bed slowly, seeing as Hibari clicked his tongue. "Don't even think about arguing and sleep on the bed" he ordered, glance turning into a glare, he made Rokudou sit back on the bed without any actual movement. Rokudou simply looked at him for a bit, in search for a reason "Sawada said you would need a comfortable spot to rest on. Good enough?" he explained, ending it with a question, Rokudou nodded, muttering a quick apology to again Hibari clicking his tongue "Quit apologizing, or I'll bite you"

Once he had said the last bit, Rokudou had the most flabbergasted expression Hibari had ever seen him do, and then heard him laugh as loudly as he can. "Oh God! Bite me" he joked, clutching his stomach as he stopped himself from laughing due to his body not being able to take the pressure he applied when laughing as hard as he was then.

Due to knowing that Rokudou disbelieved him, Hibari went up to him even though he was almost at the door just a while ago, and lowered himself. Rokudou opened his eyes and the visible eye widened as he saw Hibari right infront of him, and was even more surprised when he felt a harsh sinking of teeth on the side of his neck. Fear suddenly took over him as he thought _"Have I secretly come across a vampire!?_" his mind screamed as he bit his lower lip. He felt a smirk coming on Hibari's face as he sank lower, encircling his arms around the student's thin waist. Rokudou felt like it was an eternity what was happening and tried to push Hibari's face away from him, but in truth it was barely even a minute that passed by.

To his relief, Hibari stopped, looking at the spot he had bitten, seeing as a small amount of blood trickled down. Rokudou's face was contorted in pain with his eyes tightly shut and clenched teeth. Rokudou opened one of his eyes, which happened to be the only visible one, the left eye, and looked at Hibari "What was that..?" Hibari wiped his mouth with his sleeve "I did say I'd bite you, and you said to bite you" he straightforwardly said, making Rokudou force his mouth open, eyes darting at his teeth structure.

Hibari looked at him with an indifferent face as Rokudou was filling his own suspicion, then sighed, moving his hands away from his mouth "Jesus.. I could've sworn you could've bit my neck off. You're not even a vampire for crying out loud" he said as he put a hand on the wounded area of his neck. Hibari smirked at him, to which Rokudou smirked back, with uncertainty and a sweat drop rolling down his face "Aren't you kinky" he laughed shakily, seeing as Hibari's arms were still around him, which rose the heat up to his face, but he was thankful that it was barely visible seeing as Hibari didn't notice it "I'll bite you to death if you keep thinking that" he still had a smirk up his face, seeing that Rokudou's were wiped off him again, knowing that Rokudou was getting nervous by the way he was hanging onto Hibari's jacket shoulders rather tightly.

"How cute, still a baby?" he teased, inching closer to him, slightly rising but yet already towering him. He separated Rokudou's inseparable legs to give him more access onto coming closer, absolutely petrifying him. Hibari then laughed, seeing as Rokudou actually looked scared and embarrassed as he was now only an inch apart from him.

Rokudou wanted to scream and run away immediately, or at least smash something into his face and then run, but he did none of it, when his hands finally decided to obey him as he twisted his head to lower it, avoiding Hibari, and tried moving his arms away from him. He looked back up to see Hibari's face was several inches away from him again, as he sighed in relief. "Kufufufu.. I'm not a baby, but it seems like I fell into a carnivore's hands" he shook his head, avoiding any further eye contact, but he still laughed when he had said his last line.

Then he felt a soft contact on the wounded area of his neck, in a few seconds finding out it was Hibari kissing it. For reasons he wasn't aware of, it felt warm, unlike what he had thought it would feel. He felt the dry blood being wiped off of him, chilling him a bit, as he closed his eyes again.  
To Hibari, even though it was dry blood he was licking off, it tasted strangely sweet to him. He assumed that Rokudou was the kind of people who ate a lot of sugary foods, which was typical of people his age group. He heard no reaction from Rokudou, but he saw a slight movement of his head, allowing him, giving him permission.

Or he just fell asleep on spot.

No, that would be creepy in Hibari's dictionary, just like Rokudou registered Hibari's current behaviour to be creepy in his dictionary. He moved himself away from Rokudou, seeing him looking below at him with lowered eye lids, void of any actual expression. "Being a creep?" he asked, seeing as though Rokudou shook his head, he knew he was lying just to be polite.

It was then Hibari actually separated from him, going to another room, to which Rokudou thought he was leaving for the night, but then came back with a bag. Rokudou glanced at him as he opened the bag and took out something white from it. He realized later it was a bandage he took out as he placed it on the wound, of course, after wiping it with a disinfectant which made Rokudou click his tongue at the stinging feeling of it.

It's too ironic to tell Rokudou "Forget about what happened earlier" because he wanted Rokudou to remember it, to scar him for life about it, so that he won't be a bother to him in the near future. Rokudou said nothing, and had a small smile as Hibari threw the bag at a random spot of the room, uncaring where it went, and then told him about where he would be for the night, which was in the sitting room, as he usually read something during the night before he had actually slept.

Hibari turned the light off and left the room, letting Rokudou sink into the room which only had him now.

Even though he left Rokudou alone, he was trying to make sure and keep tabs on him as Sawada told him to, monitoring most of what he did, trying to make it as hidden as he can, as knowing someone like Rokudou, he might break surveillance cameras if he seen them too obviously in sight.

Unbeknownst to Rokudou, there was a tracking device Hibari had carefully placed on the bandage he had wrapped around the wound, and that was solely why he had it patched, otherwise he would've let it stick out like a stick in the mud. Hibari was able to track his movements as the device was connected to his phone, and even though he was horrible with most aspects on phones, the only thing he was good at, was using tracking apps on it.

Hibari looked at his phone, seeing Rokudou hasn't moved an inch other than laying down. Well, he thought laying down because the movement that was showing was so small, it wasn't possible that he had already jumped out of the room. It was showing the entirety of his room at the moment, after all. It shouldn't show more until he would change the setting.

But yet, he didn't think it was all too necessary to keep such a close eye on him, but he complied because orders are orders. He didn't want to get demoted nor fired.

_~On Rokudou's side~_

Once Hibari had shut the light off and left, he muttered a small "Goodnight" to him, which he received a small laugh which only consisted of a "Hah" before falling into the absolute darkness of the room.

He felt odd again, sleeping in a bed which wasn't his as he pulled the blanket on top of him. He was used to having comforters being the thickest 'blanket', but this outclassed it. It was probably wool, but it was of such high quality, it was more than just walking on a cloud, it was like walking on a warm cloud which had you secured from any harm of the world.

Extravagancies were heaven. He let a soft sigh, scared of feeling too comfortable as he had to leave on short notice some time later. He let the soft covers take over him for a few minutes, but yet, as much as it was heavenly, he couldn't sleep at all.

He looked at his phone, reading the mission log as he depressed himself again, wanting to be distracted by Hibari again as he checked the time. "8:30 pm. Too early for leaving" he told himself, as he scheduled to leave at around 1:00 am, as he thought, would be the time Hibari would be sleeping so he could sneak out without giving any notice.

As there was nothing else he could view, he looked up at the ceiling, to setting an alarm on his phone for 12:45 am, so that he wouldn't be late for what he had to do. He closed his eyes, thinking about things that can scare him to sleep, but nothing did, so instead he laid there, making himself 'enjoy' the overly softness of the bed, and made himself sink into it again.

But that, even just lasted for another hour.

He shot awake thinking of it being overtime, but then saw the time and sighed again. He turned to his side, laying in a fetal position as he tried sleeping, but his mind just didn't accept it.

Sure, his eyes were tired and closed happily, but his mind was awake as day, and refused to go through the sleep cycle. He could just up and leave, but he knew Hibari was awake and would notice something odd in him, which he wanted to avoid, because he assumed that Hibari was doing some study on him which didn't sound wrong to him as the possibility stood.

The room being absolutely silent, and his mind shouting depths of things Rokudou didn't know of, and didn't know how to respond. He wished that someone can just knock his senses out, but he knew no one would do that as he for the umpteenth time, forced himself to sleep. His mind wandering to one focus: Hibari.

Recalling what happened earlier between Hibari and he brought the overflowing feelings he had about the scene. He was in a mix of being surprised, embarrassed, but happy at the same time. Happy due to finding out that there is someone in the lonely world which would creep up that close to him, even if he was a demonic person as others would usually say. Seeing that Hibari came that close to him, looking more like the demon than he was considered made him feel strangely happy.

He knew he can't make a too intimate bond with him, but yet, his heart began to sense longing.

He longed for his presence again, to have him so uncomfortably close to him, for him to invade his personal space.

Most importantly, to be needed by someone of his caliber. Not needed by some weakling, or someone too dominating, but a monster of his kind.

Just like himself, and Hibari Kyouya seemed to fit the criteria.

A frown came on him as he was finally able to shut his mind off, thanks to Hibari once again. Geez, how much times is he going to owe him?

But at least now he knew how to repay those debts.

As he was finally asleep, he was able to script how he would be able to repay those debts without having something unwanted in it, and that was when time began to tease him.

What felt like a few minutes was hours as his alarm began to sound, jolting him awake only to fall back because the bed betraying him with its puffy comfort. He forced himself out of bed, making sure he didn't make a lot of noise with the shuffling, and then made the bed, before picking his stuff and slowly opening the room door, seeing the hallway lights were completely shut, it was telling him that no one could possibly be awake at this hour.

Smiling to himself, he wiped his eyes before closing the door again, and then proceeding to the window, thanking nothing in particular that it was present and big enough for him to sneak out.

Just like the dorm room windows.

Because the window was already open, it wasn't odd that he left it open as he removed the screen off it, and threw himself out, gripping the sill on the outside with one hand, the other pulling himself up to put the screen back on. It wasn't back in perfect condition as one would have to screw it back on, but it was in a condition that looked normal enough, as he let go of the sill and jumped from wall to the wall of another's house and proceeded in such manner. Surprisingly no one awoke from it, but since he was considered a professional at what he was doing, it shouldn't be making a lot of noise as he checked his radar, looking at where his first destination would be located at. Already at an hour's distance, he began to speed out, but then resorted to walking later, but then he remembered.

He had to go back to his dorm room for his weapon and other items. So he turned back, knowing that he wouldn't be taking too much time doing that as he was already ready for doing that, which was why he got out early.

Taking a few minutes there, he got to his dorm room and got whatever he could possibly take with him and darted out again, setting out.

In about an hour's time just as the radar said, he made it, where he was greeted by some members of the family, he assumed due to their uniforms. He showed his identity card which he had made in case he had to have it shown to someone during missions, which they approved of, knowing of the circumstances when they saw his ID, and let him inside to meet the client.

As he walked in, he noticed the awkward amount of white adorning the building, and a lot of hanged bouquets of flowers of many different kinds. He then thought about the possibility of the client's group being flourists, but then he remembered the name of the group: Millefiore.

A thousand flowers.

It was self-explanatory why there were so much flowers, it was in its name itself. Rokudou mentally facepalmed, finally reaching the end of the hall and meeting with a few people of unfamiliar faces.

They were pretty tall, and each having odd hair colours. One having a light blue colour, which was a small little girl, and green for a slightly taller boy, to cerulean for a relatively taller one, still taller than Rokudou was, and the other being red haired, who was one of the tallest, if not for one with a mask, whom Rokudou couldn't see the hair of.

The little girl waved at him politely and was the first to speak "Hey~ Who are you?" she asked as the short green haired boy stared at him with his big eyes which seemed to look like a snake's eyes. The cerulean haired man, or was he even a man, looked at him with a graceful look "Bluebell, he's the one who we hired" by the tone of his voice, Rokudou confirmed that was indeed a boy, and what was surprising was how that 'boy' was around his age, but he looked years older. The red haired man had a lazy look to his face as he said a word that Rokudou couldn't even tell what he was saying. "Idjit, another flimsy little girl in here?" the 'idjit' being the word Rokudou was puzzled on, which he lost focus on whatever else he said to think about that weird way of saying 'idiot'?

"Zakuro, he's a boy as well. Don't be rude" the cerulean scolded lightly again, and Rokudou easily assumed he was that mother figure in the group, seeing as all of them behaved as he said so. "My apologies for their rudeness, my name is Kikyo" he bowed, and as he was lowered, he gestured to the blue haired girl he called 'Bluebell' "Her name is Bluebell" then to the green haired boy "He's Daisy", then he straightened himself "His name is Zakuro, and that is Torikabuto" at the last name, he pointed with his palm rather than the usual behaviour of pointing with a finger.

Rokudou simply looked a bit confused, but didn't say anything as he nodded slowly. "Oi Kikyo, I think the idjit didn't get it" 'Zakuro' scratched his head as Kikyo giggled "Oho. He understands it entirely, he's just waiting eagerly" he smiled at Rokudou "We're Byakuran-sama's friends, also here to protect him as he travels back home from the base here." Kikyo concluded, and Rokudou simply replied with an "Oh", still feeling a bit outcasted, seeing as he was one of the only ones who wore a heavy amount of black and had the punkish look, such as the stereotypical three piercings on one ear, two on the other, hidden eye, pale skin and long eyelashes. The 'Millefiore' group wore a lot of white, save for the black boots and the black coat, which still, had a white design on them, so the white was contrasting with Rokudou's choice of black colours.

He still stood out, out of the five standing, him included, which gave everyone the sign he was the one that they had hired, and it was rather obvious because he didn't have a resemblance to them either.

"We're waiting for Byakuran-sama to get ready" then Rokudou noted, why would friends call their other friend with such honourific? Was he that rich or high classed? But it seemed as though they were saying he wasn't ready yet, the door beside them all opened, revealing the white haired man who was in the photograph _they_ sent Rokudou.  
"Sorry to keep you all waiting" he started, and Rokudou noticed that all of them had a hand on their chin, for some reason only showing the thumb, index and middle finger, the ring finger and pinky were clenched. They looked like some people who were checking out something, but Rokudou assumed again, that was probably their greeting to him.

"Oh you came!" Rokudou looked from them to Byakuran, who smiled innocently at him with his closed eyes "When they said they'll provide us with a powerful assassin, I thought it'd be a scary looking man like Phanny, but it figures they hired a cute little child!" he laughed, Rokudou did feel a bit insulted, but he didn't know who this 'Phanny' was, so he assumed him to be a ruthless looking person.

"Kufufufu.. Remind me how old you are" he asked, knowing that Byakuran really was no older than him, but he was in a pestering mood for being called young "So you're the infamous Rokudou Mukuro-kun? Not bad" he took a step closer before moving away "I can trust you for watching my back, can I?" he turned his head to look at his team and Rokudou "Yes Byakuran-sama" Kikyo bowed when asked, seeing as the others did, Rokudou simply watched them, then looked at Byakuran who turned around fully, tilting his head at him "May I trust you, Mukuro-kun?" Rokudou looked at him for a few seconds, then nodded "Alright then, I'll trust all of your words for this" he smiled again as they followed him out to the carriage.

"So why is Byakuran going home?" Rokudou asked Kikyo, who made a thinking gesture "Something of a homecoming, came on short notice" he then smiled troubled at Rokudou "And since we are an infamous team, Byakuran-sama has the risk of being pursued by assassins who have previously worked with him until Yuni-sama disbanded the team, due to knowing we didn't get along in truth" he explained as they all went in the carriage which Byakuran was in. Rokudou decided to lean outside of it, keeping a look-out as well as being the main external force due to his prowess.

Kikyo apparently sat near him so he could explain the scenario, while Bluebell sat beside Byakuran, Zakuro, and Torikabuto on the back, Daisy beside Kikyo. There was a seat for Rokudou, but he refused to sit inside, knowing he was different from them and he found it odd to be around them although he didn't know how long would he be with them.

He looked to the sky, seeing how grey it once was again, and clicked his tongue. It'll never get clearer, can't it?

The greyness reminded him already of his client, and how white he is. Maybe the world wants him to see white, rather than the black he wears.

Seeing that the rain came in a bunch rather than trickles, Rokudou made no action on covering himself any further than he already had so Kikyo did the honour of grabbing the back of his black coat and pulled Rokudou into the carriage beside him. Rokudou looked surprised for a second, then saw Kikyo's troubled smile  
"It'd be bad for movement if you get wet" he said, as Rokudou sighed. To him it didn't matter, so why should it matter to someone else? He remained silent as he nodded nonetheless, as Kikyo grew a bit uneasy; noting to himself that Rokudou simply was here for the job and perhaps doesn't look forward to socializing at all with the others.

It was going to be a long journey this time around..

Rokudou kept a look on the back as Byakuran was humming a tone to himself, giving an aura of carelessness. He assumed it was because of his utmost faith in his comrades, or probably he was some superpowered person who didn't actually need any of these hitmen to protect him.  
He believed the latter.

They were decorations so that those who were waiting for him wouldn't have to worry. Rokudou casted a glance at the chilled white head that still, didn't seem to care or didn't notice. He clenched his teeth and looked away, trying to make every bit of his already developed anger towards him. He didn't care if it was his day off and he has to work, he minded however, that this man is using them like how sleazy old bags use children for experiments or whatever, as if they are their lapdogs.

He shook off thoughts that were forming in his mind and continued to watch out, before jumping on the hard roof of the carriage, and quickly deflected something incoming at them with his trident. Kikyo had himself situated to the front to protect the ones in the front, and Rokudou tapped the roof with his trident end to signal they are being attacked.

The 'something' that Rokudou deflected seemed to uncurl itself, revealing a small little fox, not as small as a cub, but a rather small rolled up fox, followed up by another which was aiming for the front, which he once again slapped away from. He narrowly dodged what was coming at him, which was a tall man who sprang up from someone with an aerial attack with his billiard stick, aiming straight at Rokudou. Because he didn't exactly see him due to the other fox, he managed to bring his trident infront of him to rather clash with the billiard stick than to take full damage on it.

Zakuro and Torikabuto also came out of their posts and got ready for fighting the other two who came with levitation boots.  
So technology has gone so far that they have levitation boots now? Might be so

The other two had red coated scythes, one of the two being far smaller than his companion who was those typical big, bodyguard types. Torikabuto shielded himself with his weapon, while Zakuro went to the offense by jumping and striking one of them down. Because one of the two were much younger, he was easily dropped to the ground as Zakuro yawned in boredom

"Idjit, not worth the go" he said, after yawning, walking away from the child. Rokudou managed to tug off the leader, throwing a small knife to distract him, which he easily sidestepped, landing another blow on Rokudou's trident that he carried in defense. "My, oh my, sending a small child against me? Byakuran really sunk low" the man laughed a bit, jumping a few steps back and running a hand through his hair. Thanks to his speed, Kikyo managed to make a scratch on the blond man's face, diverting his attention away from Rokudou.

"Rokudou-kun, sorry for the lateness" he slightly bowed, "Now that I know _he's_ the one leading them, I should handle this" then he glared at the one whom touched his bloodied cheek, whistling at the damage caused "Byakuran's dogs.." he muttered before turning his smirk into a face of pure anger, attacking Kikyo without any hint of hesitation, who with his elegance, danced away from each strike.

"Gamma-kun, Byakuran-sama spared that one time.. Why are you opposing him again?" Kikyo asked while dodging. Gamma called his cubs back and aimed at Kikyo again, "There's no higher sin than to betray the Princess" he snapped at him in response. Rokudou observed that in such short time, Kikyo and Gamma were able to actually damage each other with rather quick attacks, that if he didn't have his red eye, he wouldn't have been able to follow through.

_Perhaps this is the power of real hitmen_, he deduced, although it was rather noticeable that he himself was just overestimating them, seeing as how he was able to dash quicker than many, that Gamma didn't notice that he was in the air ready to strike, Kikyo moved back to let him attack, seeing as the aerial attack was just a diversion to the actual land attack.

Now if everything was in slow motion, this all was able to be seen, but if people weren't quick enough, they wouldn't have been able to follow anything that was going on. Byakuran himself was watching from behind as they stopped the carriage. He didn't look amused or anything, it was as if he already knew what was happening and how it was going to happen.

Rokudou's land attack could've been a lethal blow to Gamma, if someone didn't interrupt them, saving Gamma's life as he was aiming at the wrong spot; the sky. He was caught by surprise when Rokudou just threw another knife, and then was about to land a real attack when he landed.

But it went on Gamma's favour, seeing as his companion, the Phantom Knight, otherwise known as Genkishi, came in the right moment to intercept the blow with his twin swords. He had the eyes of someone who had fought a war and won through it, like an emperor of fighting.

Far superior to Rokudou, who handicapped himself by shielding his right eye, not allowing it to do anything for the time being. Looking into the silent knight's eyes brought a slight fear inside Rokudou, but it didn't stop him from decisively throwing more rapid blows at him, without allowing a second for Genkishi to breathe.

His movements were impeccably quick, but Genkishi had more than just two swords, he had a strong mind, and more swords to duel with.

Using the sword on his leg brought dust in Rokudou's unguarded eye, who refused to let it distract him as he continued to dodge squinting his hurt eye. Gamma didn't get a minute to thank him because as soon as he arrived, he got occupied fighting a child who was several years younger than him, but showed the prowess of someone similar to their caliber. He himself got occupied fighting Kikyo again, who seemed to have the advantage of the situation, throwing Gamma off guard.

Genkishi and Rokudou both jumped back at the same time, Rokudou began to rub his eye, while Genkishi began to speak. "A mere child being able to match up to our level.. Very impressive" he commented, as Rokudou looked back at him, adjusting his eyes again. His vision seemed a bit impaired, but the look in it spoke lengths of determination, which was something opposed to Genkishi's, which were like voids, opposed to his eye colour of sterling gold.

"Your name, assassin" he continued, in a tone less than an order, but of curiosity. "I am the Phantom Knight of Yuni-sama, commonly called Genkishi" he introduced himself, Gamma shouting from afar along the lines of "there's no time for introductions!", both of them ignored him and continued their stare off.  
He blinked a few times, and once he found it fine to see again, he tightened his grip on the trident, moving it behind him and laughed "_Kufufufufu.._ Who said I was an Assassin?" with a free hand, he made a questioning gesture, before moving it over to the tresses of blue on his right side of his face. "But you probably heard my name somewhere" he flicked the bang to the side, revealing an eye brimmed of blood crimson with a strange sense of having a kanji written. Right now it was the number _六_. Six in English. Genkishi looked surprised for a moment, and then composed himself "An experimented child. They say no one survived them, but one secretly has this whole time" he closed his eyes, then reopened them, repeating a question "Your name" or statement. For like one of the first time today, Rokudou had a smirk on his face "Rokudou.. Mukuro" he replied, changing the kanji in his eye to 一, or _one_ in English. Genkishi knew what was coming at him so he twirled both his swords and charged at Rokudou. Rokudou initially was doing the same. What was strange of the Rokudou charging at him was how blackened it was, that when Genkishi slashed it, it became a moss of rocks at him. They didn't hurt him as much, but it did serve a distraction to him as the real Rokudou then came and slashed him similarly to how he was trying to do with Gamma. Genkishi almost got hurt, but because of his sword positioning, it wasn't fully impacted, seeing as he managed to land a scratch on Rokudou's side. Coincidently both received similar damage. Rokudou had a tight lipped smile on, seeing as the red of his blood was beginning to cover the white of his shirt, but he didn't mind however, seeing as his opponent at least, received some damage similar. Even though this is the first time he actually got real wounds fighting, other than the small cuts and scratches, this was deeper than the usual. "Wow." He muttered "This is a first" looking up at Genkishi's slightly troubled face "I have to say this is the same for you?" by the look on his face, it gave Rokudou answers he asked for. Byakuran, who spent his time simply watching them, began to laugh to himself again, seeing as Torikabuto is a horrible fighter that Zakuro has to deal with the two of his opponents, Kikyo had minor wounds, but he looked better than what Gamma looked. It was now that he walked forward. Ever so slowly… Rokudou and Genkishi resumed their rapid attacks, each of them getting wounds here and there, but not in terrible conditions. It was when Byakuran made a sly step forward, that Rokudou's vision once again began to blur, seeing as he hit a tree from impact of a strong kick, blood spurted out of his smiling face. He showed not a hint of fear and immediately ducked when Genkishi tried stabbing him while he was on the tree bark. Rokudou's eye once again changed kanji, and he seemed to have a stronger aura around him, kicking Genkishi in the gut, and pulling the sword out of the tree, tossing it at him with great force that hit him in the left shoulder, disabling it.  
"Well done" Genkishi muttered, wiping his face of excessive blood "For a small child to wound me this much" he eyed Rokudou's bout of coughs that he choked out. "But it seems even you are reaching your limit" he effortlessly pulled the sword off of himself "This could end with our deaths" uncaring of the blood flowing carelessly out of the wound and sword which is now drenched in it, looking to the side "Seeing as we are on the losing side. And your considerate leader is approaching you" Rokudou followed his gaze and scowled. It was only he who was losing their lives here, seeing as how Zakuro managed to land great wounds on the two, and seems done with them, throwing Torikabuto back in the carriage, and Kikyo stopped fighting even though Gamma is trying to continue it to the death kinds, and last but not least, Byakuran is coming their way with a smile on his unchanging face. "Phanny, you should go back to Yuni-chan" although he had the voice of someone teasing, it sounded like a firm order "She wouldn't like seeing someone hurt, especially those close to her" he paused "_When she didn't order them to_" with the last saying, his eyes opened, showing a smile, but a stare that pierced one's soul with fear. Genkishi sheathed his swords at that, and kept a level gaze at Byakuran "Byakuran-sama, Yuni-sama would still want you back."

Byakuran just had a small smile to his opened eyed face "Its nothing wrong with Yuni-chan, I just hate the people she's with" he pointed upward when he said that "And I have my own reasons for leaving, even if I didn't want to leave Yuni-chan's side" he turned away from all of them "now, may you please go back to her?" he asked without a change in tone. Rokudou glanced at Genkishi, who seemed to give a signal to Gamma, and bowed to Byakuran "Return soon, Byakuran-sama. For now, have a safe endeavour" Gamma seemed to be saying something against what Genkishi was doing, but was ignored once again as Genkishi jumped into the forest thickets. Gamma cursed silently, calling the two followers; Nosaru and Tazaru to follow him which they silently complied.

It was only when they left that Rokudou felt all the strain on his body and tried not to fall over, wiping his face with his sleeve that wasn't dirtied. Byakuran then looked joyful again and called the team back, including Rokudou, which did put ease to all of them, but only slightly.  
Everyone seemed to be back in position, Bluebell and Daisy remained unmoving because for some reason they weren't required for the fight, so they were stationed with Byakuran, except he kept wandering around, telling them to stay put.

It was as if the weather was ignored for the whole time, that now Rokudou felt the stinging of the rapid droplets of rain from the sky.  
He actually forgot it was raining the whole time because he also mistakened his own blood as coloured rain, so it didn't matter to him as much. But right now, it was mocking him. Kikyo helped him walk until they were inside the carriage, immediately regretting on not taking anything with them other than themselves and things Byakuran needed.

They remained quiet during the re-travel, no one making any move of actual conversation until Byakuran piped in with a few congrats to his teammates, Rokudou blatantly ignored him as he talked, Kikyo making occasional replies to him just to keep a conversation up, but thanks to Bluebell, Byakuran was able to chat as if nothing happened.

Rokudou stared in his direction, which was behind the carriage, observing how violently the rain falling on the already wet or soaked ground, and how the trees shook and shouted with the wind blowing at them, shaking it down. He wondered if those 'former teammates' of Byakuran made it out of the rain in one piece, because they didn't seem to have something to take them, unlike his lucky self who had a carriage.  
He clicked his tongue thinking about it.

As if on cue, the carriage wheels hit a few rocks, causing everyone to rock inside, as lucky as Rokudou was, some of the rain water splat him on the face, laughing at him. He gritted his teeth, but instead laughed painfully.

He laughed.

Laughed as loud as his cracky lungs gave out. He clutched his face with a gloved hand and laughed. It sounded like a person who had a really bad case of the sore throat that his larynx vibrated with such hoarse-ness.

Kikyo glanced at him worriedly, more shaken by fear than actual worry, Zakuro grumbled as he was trying to sleep, Daisy had a similar look to Kikyo, except he naturally looked like that, and avoided looking behind, Bluebell commented "What a strange laugh" while Byakuran laughed a bit with him "That's a neat laugh, Mukuro-kun" he was the only one who didn't seem to have a negative reaction, looking behind. "We're almost there, so rest easy~" he assured, pointing at somewhere ahead "See? There it is~" pointing at a white building of impressive design. Rokudou managed to stop, catching his breath, covering his mouth and turned his head in Byakuran's direction.

_'Finally. Just a few more minutes till I can just leave this..'_ he thought to himself, knowing that either in an hour or a few more minutes he was going to pass out.

But it seemed like time was by his side that they came to a halt because they reached their destination. The rain was cruel as ever, trying its best to damage the walls of the Gesso household, but it proved superior, just letting the rain bounce off or trail down.

The others got out and made their way inside, showing the guards of the household who they have brought in, and let them in seeing Byakuran in a good condition other than soaked by the rain.  
Rokudou chose to stay outside, even if they insisted him coming inside, but his focus was going so bad that he couldn't make words out of what they were saying then.

Byakuran had texted Rokudou of the notification of the mission being done and was going to have the money sent to wherever it even went. Texted because he had previously called Rokudou three times of it, but he didn't seem like he was in a state to even hear it, even though he just looked a little confused, but even if Rokudou was a great actor, Byakuran was very perceptive.

Far perceptive that he knew Rokudou was planning on laying dead when he tries going back, which is exactly what happened.  
Byakuran couldn't watch him leave because he was being bombarded with questions from the butlers, maids, and everyone else who reside with him.  
Basically he was a bit busy to see him off, and was only able to text him once and that was the only time he was able to do so.

Rokudou on the other end, at first walked without showing trouble, biting his lip as the rain fell on him. Even though he was a bit vexed by it, he knew there wouldn't be someone to come for him and aid him back to his home, or dormroom, in other words.

Seeing as his condition wasn't worth bragging about, it was rather saddening that people would just let an injured and tired person fend for themselves after they helped him out.  
Then again, that sounds like a pity thing, which he hates seeing or having to be a part of. More than anything, he hates receiving pity from people.

Not because its for the weak, its because they look down on him, and his reputation as a great assassin diminishes because they then believe he's some weak child trying to be some strong being.

When he reached a considerable distance, in easy words, the household was no longer in hindsight, he harshly fell on the wet floor, mixing some blood with the brown of the ground. At first he didn't want to make any move on getting up, and simply resting there.

_'I have classes tomorrow..'_

Even though that wasn't a priority, it just was. He only got to the class he wanted to by chance, so he didn't want to lose it.

Even if death stands infront of him, at least reporting as a dead student is better than reported as a truant.

Striking his trident with one hand, he slowly got up using it for support.

No.. Dying right now is not a choice right now. Not until he gets Dokuro her eye surgery, M.M receive her lost family heritage, Chikusa and Ken their old lives back, being normal people, and Fran his grandmother who he misses.

There is still too much for him to do.

Yet..

His body refuses to take these steps. His mind accepts being taken out of the surfaces of earth, and his heart, all alone, stubbornly wishing to stay.

It took him all his strength to move even with support. A distance someone should just be getting in a minute took him eight minutes.

His trident fell with a loud clang, and fell down once again. His eyes lost sight of everything around him, seeing as he couldn't figure what he was on his left, which was his trident that dropped with him. Other than his own wounds, the rain had him sluggish, preventing movements as he began to feel heavy as lead.

_'Maybe a few minutes wouldn't be bad' _he tried saying outloud, but his voice failed him once again. Laying down on the cold ground with the rain coming down at him seemed pretty relaxing. There's no one to stop him, no one he has to return to..

No one really needed him in the end.

Taking a little rest wouldn't be a bad idea..

Its not like there's someone waiting for him. There's alternatives available for anyone.

His eyes slowly closed themselves, and for once in a long time this day, his smile looked genuine, like someone who is truly void of negative feelings.

Perhaps rest is an option.

* * *

_**And that's all I got for now. **_  
_**As always, reviews are always appreciated, it helps me organize things~**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**If any case you were wondering about Flames, in this fanfiction, there's isn't, hence no one was using them.**_

_**Disclaimers: Katekyo Hitman REBORN! does not belong to me, it belongs to Akira Amano~**_

* * *

_**Chapter 6- Of new solutions and newer issues**_

_His mind drifted off into another world once again._

_With the same beautiful old sight of green grass, flowers all around, growing beautifully, Rokudou's first thought was to look at the sky, which looked slightly different than it always had. _

_The sky was always grey, regardless of any clouds or not. This time, it had a slight colour in it. A light cerulean colour. Now he has read a lot of times and seen picture books that say the sky is always blue when there are no clouds._

_But he was never able to actually see it._

_He reached out to the blue, seeing how far it is from his reach, but a smile came on his face._

_It wasn't some blue sheet someone put on, it was an actual coloured sky._

_He looked down to see more children pilling in, running around, playing amongst each other, laughing, smiling.._

_He smiled at them out of instinct, and it seemed that they were able to see him, as they waved at him, speaking in words Rokudou couldn't understand. _  
_Even though he didn't understand, the scenery was so light-hearted, he felt like a feather which was about to be blown away._

_One of the children had the guts to run up to him. As he did, he was holding a couple of flowers in his small pale hands, beaming at Rokudou. Without thinking, he bent over to the boy's level, who then reached out with the flowers to him. He smiled gently and patted the child's gold head, ruffling spiky but soft hair._

_The child laughed, showing him the flowers. "Please have them" he said, putting them on Rokudou's lap, making him look down at them. Beautiful shade of purple and indigo, the flowers were Hydrangea. Seeing the beautiful shade, Rokudou, with his free hand, fingered them, then looked back at the little child_

_"Thank you"_

_The child's eyes gleamed, then he nodded, making his head furtherly patted even if Rokudou wasn't moving that hand. It was also one of the first times Rokudou could speak within in a dream, because usually it felt like his throat was cut, or his larynx was sealed by something. Now it felt as light as he was feeling._

_The child turned his head to see someone calling out to him, who looked much older than him, wearing black all over, save for a violet dress shirt which was tucked neatly in his dress pants. The boy smiled at Rokudou again, before running over to the black cladded man, who stepped closer, revealing silver eyes._

_Rokudou was still sitting on his knees, so he had to crane his head up high, rather than simply looking up. Curious heterochromatic eyes looked into steel eyes, who at first looked very seriously at him, then even he softened. Steel silver eyes lightened, and a small smile came on his face. The child laughed again, clinging onto the man's leg, before looking back at Rokudou with the unfading smile._

_"Don't leave us waiting" the man spoke in a gentle but strong voice, and Rokudou smiled at him, if anything he looked a little nervous, until he started to see the scenery changing once again. He frowned as he began to hear people talking, not screaming, but simply talking. It was then he realized, he needs to get going._

_Is it possible that people are actually waiting?_

_Well according to the man in black, who spoke one line to him, told him more than what he needed to know. There wasn't one or no person waiting, but there were a lot of people, yearning for him to come back._

_His friends.._

_His family.._

_All are waiting patiently for him._

_Rokudou looked down at the flowers again, then looked up at the man and nodded. "Yeah.. See you soon" he let the wind blow on him and the others, seeing as the child began to look confused, and his other friends started walking up to the man and the child. Rokudou waved at them, who then waved back at him as gentle winds picked up._

_'Let them guide you where you want to be.. Where you should be..'_

_-!_

He woke up to seeing white once again.

Rokudou's eyes slowly opened to white ceilings, white coverings, and people.

He curiously looked to his side to see a worried Giotto who smiled when he was glanced over to.

"Giotto?" was the first thing he asked, blinking a few times. Giotto sighed in relief "Rokudou-kun, could you believe it? The staff said you were dead!" he cried, fiddling with his hands on his lap, seated on a chair.

Rokudou lowered his eyes and smiled at him. Behind Giotto was Yamamoto and the others, who seemed to look more calmer than Giotto. Then again.. Why is the ever so calm and unwavering Giotto looking so worried? Who cares if he had died earlier, its nothing of Giotto's concern, he has so much friends who can easily replace the void called Rokudou Mukuro.

Yet..

Giotto leaned back on the chair, wiping his face. Come to look at it, his face did look a lot more red that it usually did, especially around the eyes. Rokudou had a troubled look realizing he made Giotto cry for.. who even knows how long? Along with that, his hair looked a bit disheveled in terms of it looking less spikier, then again, Sawada's hair was always spikier than his, but Giotto's had the look of Cloud Strife's. Even that was a bit lowered

"I'm so glad you're awake" Giotto interrupted Rokudou's thoughts, putting a finger near his small nose "Honestly, people need more faith" he pouted, Gokudera snickered behind, while Yamamoto began to speak "He was so worried, he cried all day saying he regretted not forcing you to come with us" he laughed, and Giotto looked more embarrassed than he usually did, snapping his head back, shouting with his light voice "I thought I told you guys not to say that!" he hid his face, Sasagawa came closer to the bed "I hope you are doing better Rokudou kun" she smiled at him, he looked over to her, sitting up with low difficulty, as he wasn't mortally wounded, but just a compilation of a lot of them, including rain. Giotto tried forcing him back to laying down, so he was forced to lean on the bed rim, with a pillow risen to support his small back.

He had a few bandages on his face, because most of them were on his midriff, which was covered by his white shirt, and the white blanket that covered majority of his body, save for his arms and half torso. His hair was opened and a little messy due to having it open while laying down on a bed, and because his bangs were parted again, he kept his right eye closed so that no one sees it. He moved his bangs back on the eye for ease.

"Yeah, I'm doing fine, thanks" he looked to the vase situated not so far, looking at the small little blue flowers standing in it. By first glance, he was able to tell they were hydrangea. Although hydrangea are not the usual plants to be placed in hospital rooms, it brought a smile to him, as he remembered, it was someone in this room who was offering them to him, and it seemed like it made its way to the real world.

"But how did I get here?" he asked, looking back at someone who was supposedly paying attention. Sasagawa looked over to Giotto then back at Rokudou "I think it was Hibari sensei who brought you here" she answered, not really aware who Hibari is, but heard his name a few times by Giotto.

Rokudou then made a comical expression, saying a small "eh" Sasagawa tilted her head "Rokudou-kun, is something wrong with that?" she asked innocently, making him crackily look at her with the same comical expression "ahahah.. how the hell did he?" Sasagawa then shrugged, because she thought the fact that it was Hibari who brought him back, means he's a pretty nice fellow

Speaking of the nice fellow Hibari, he finally made his fashionably late appearance, which of course Giotto had to retort about "Hibari Sensei, so late.." he mumbled, dissociating himself from the chatting Gokudera, Yamamoto and Miura. He said nothing, seeing as everyone is crowded near the bed, he kept himself far.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me of something, Rokudou-kun" Giotto whipped his head back to Rokudou, who looked a bit cluelessly to him "I thought of a group title for us" he smiled "A group.. title?" Rokudou asked, not really sure where it was going with this.

"Yeah! Our gang, is going to be called Vongola!" he pointed at everyone with his thumb "And we all will have codenames too, wouldn't that be great?" even though he sounded very excited about the idea, he looked so calm rather than excited. Rokudou smiled at the enthusiasm of his, which once again was a rare sight considering Giotto always had this professional behaviour. Is this what his friends always saw in him?

"I think that's a great idea!" Gokudera responded, clearly excited because it was Giotto who has stated the idea "Sounds good. What would we be called though?" Yamamoto smiled, asking the real questions. Giotto looked at the two "Well, I've only thought of names for you guys" he sheepishly smiled, Rokudou just watched them once again from his bedpost.

"Yamamoto-kun, you will be Rain because you are so reliable and so fully of tranquility, Gokudera-kun, because you really love destruction, and you desire acceptance from others, myself included, you'll be Storm" Yamamoto looked confused, but smiled nonetheless, while Gokudera looked like a puppy who was being patted "Amazing, you really are so good at telling what people are like!" he balled his fist in excitement "Miura-chan, you'll be lightning because you are quite ambitious and would go on so much lengths to achieve your goals, and Kurokawa-san, you'll be Cloud because you are quite the aloof kind, always sailing independently away from the group like if you are saying 'why am i with a bunch of losers' and Sasagawa-san is Sun because of how kind she is, always like the sun shining in the sky, quiet, but noticeable." Kurokawa snickered and Sasagawa didn't have a change in reaction, as if she knew what he was going to say, and Miura smiled "That's cool, Giotto san~" Giotto smiled at them, then looked at Rokudou "And Rokudou-kun, because no one can really tell what you are thinking, and I think you're pretty creative with your works, you'll be Mist" Rokudou, like Sasagawa didn't have much of a change in reaction, just smiled.

"And then I thought, what would suit me..?" Hibari just watched them, as Giotto pouted again, Rokudou brought a finger up "Well because you're a pretty accepting person, and a great peacekeeper, why not just be Sky?" Rokudou asked in a rather matter-of-fact way, Giotto looked back at him "Sky?" Rokudou nodded "Doesn't 'Giotto' even mean 'Great Sky'?" Giotto looked surprised for a moment, then laughed. "Hahah, you're right, it does mean that. So then I'm Sky?" he asked again, Rokudou, getting tired of nodding, nodded yet again.

"Yes yes.. That makes you Sky, who holds the Rain, Storm, Lightning, Sun, Cloud and Mist together" he concluded, Giotto looking at him in amazement "Rokudou-kun, that sounds cooler coming from you" then as on cue, Giotto's phone begun to ring

"Ah, its uncle" he picked up and headed for the door "I'll be right back, eh?" he waved at them before leaving. Rokudou watched him leave, looking at the others, who then looked at Hibari _who_ gave them a look, so they looked back at Rokudou "Hibari Sensei hates crowding, and I think he wants to have a word with you" Kurokawa stated, looking clearly unfazed at the 'intimdating' stare of his. She wanted to ask how did he get injured enough to get to a hospital for more than three days, but she refused, thinking it was probably some personal issue.

The idea that it is an odd Tuesday, Rokudou was on that mission since Thursday, found by Hibari on Friday morning, hospitalized till today. The reasons as to why this happened was unknown to them, but they were scared to ask.

"Alright" they all said bye to him and walked out, knowing they would meet up with him later. It was a moment after they left that Hibari approached him, Rokudou then had a nervous smile on his face, but on the inside, he was shaking.

'_He knows of it. He's going to tell everyone' _he mentally shuddered, making sure he won't show it on the outside.

_'He's going to hate me. He's going to kill me'_ Hibari simply stared at him blankly, which was the usual stare he gives people.

'_Either that, or he's going to put me in prison, either way, I'm in trouble'_ It was like another eternity of waiting till Hibari began to speak "Your phone was broken when i found you" he started, giving Rokudou the phone he found '_shoot.. Now how am I going to contact them?'_ Rokudou looked at it, then let it sit beside him, near the pillow.

"There was a weapon beside you" he showed a picture of the trident to Rokudou through his phone "Its in my room right now, because the doctor was going to freak out" his eyes widened upon seeing the photo.

"The doctor refused to check on you" the fact that Hibari wasn't saying it all at once was bothering Rokudou the most, irking him "Saying that there's a demonic presence to you" he then moved the bangs which hid Rokudou's right eye "He almost fainted seeing what was under this" he fingered the eyelid, letting it sail within the butterfly eyelash "I couldn't see it, but he said it was something dangerous. Life threatening" his finger now reached the end of his eyespot, letting itself stop on the corner "Was someone trying to murder you?" he finally asked, moving his hand away from him "No, I fell off a carriage" Rokudou lied, which Hibari quickly noted, seeing as he looked away from him "No.. Your body would've had an evenly splatter if that were the case. Besides that weapon had blood on it, by the colour of the dark red on it" he then glared at him for being lied to, which made Rokudou even more nervous than he was.

"I'm not telling anyone of it" he then comforted, making Rokudou look at him "It's only to answer my questions" he frowned in response. "Oh? Then tell me, what are you going to do when you find out?" he finally spoke, in a much quieter voice, looking back at him with the visible eye "Depends on your answers" Hibari shrugged "I don't care if its bad, but if you can't be happy with what you are doing, you're betraying yourself" as he was saying it, Hibari moved his gaze elsewhere, and had an unreadable expression, which surprised Rokudou as he was trying to figure out what he was trying to say through his face and words.

Hibari didn't expect an answer which was about to come out, so he bent the subject "I took care of your medical bills, you don't need to think about it" he looked back at him, then noticed that Rokudou had opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted. "Oh I see.." then he looked at his hands which were sitting on his lap "I was escorting someone to their household" Hibari then looked like he was paying full attention to him "And that man had rivals from other places.." he leaned back, turning his head upward

"Protecting him was vital, and because I know how to deal with nuisances like that, I took on that task" he then looked at Hibari and lowered his head "I didn't think there would be such a powerful swordsman by their side, and I was caught off guard" he then sneezed "Ontop of that, it was raining, so I was put under a disadvantage" he lifted his shirt up to look at a bloodied tourniquet "And I'm only good with self-defence, not literally guarding someone who is more.. well endowed than me" he took Hibari's hand and moved it over to the wound, making Hibari's long fingers stroke the wound present. It didn't stop him from talking, even if he knew it stung a bit "Kuhah! I managed to keep him safe, but who knew I was in a near death situation?" he laughed sardonically to himself, Hibari seemed more sad now, seeing how the bandage seemed to latch itself onto Rokudou's thin body

"If you are going to ask why did I take on it? Its a easy and lame answer" Rokudou smiled at him, with that smile, there was a little red that appeared near one eye. He thought of not answering because of the sheer obviousness, but he did nonetheless "That's where I get my pay" he itched his cheek when he said that, thinking that now Hibari might think he's an idiot.

"Stupid.." So he does think he's an idiot "No one wants to hire a paranormal punk" he suddenly proclaimed, anger rising on his face as well as in the tone of his voice. Hibari looked surprised for a moment, unexpecting an angry response to come from him any sooner, and closed his eyes "If that's the case, why do you have people running behind you?" Rokudou's glare lessened to a sad glance "You call them friends, correct? Why do they like you?" he clarified, knowing that Rokudou wouldn't answer him "Why am I even talking to you if I don't want to have anything to do with you?" he then opened his eyes, there was no glower nor glare, he was just looking straight at Rokudou, actually looking thoughtful.

"Because we will accept you, even if you killed a millions of people" he just needed to say that, that and a stroke on his face, and small transparent tears came dripping from mismatched eyes. It started from the left, then continued on the right, over Hibari's hand as it was still on the right side of his face. "You don't have to tell everyone everything, heck, we hide things from others" although tears came from Rokudou's eyes, he looked as if he didn't even know they were coming until Hibari rubbed his closed eye, did he realize something was up. He brought a finger up his face and watched as the drop travelled to his finger and looked questioningly at it. He's known that Dokuro was the only one who visibly showed that she cried a lot, seeing as tears almost don't stop falling down her face until she is happy with Rokudou, otherwise she always looks like she is sad.

He didn't know he was also capable of crying as well, seeing as it wasn't stopping. His right eye even opened, which seemed redder because of the strain of crying. He looked away from his finger to Hibari, who still had a very thoughtful look on his face, as if telling him it was alright to cry.

"I'll give you all the time you want" he thought and said out loud. He moved his hand away from Rokudou, seeing as he buried his head in his hands, openly crying, wiping away his tears. Although Hibari didn't know what the circumstances he faced back when he was far younger, he could tell by the look in Rokudou's eyes, his right in particular, the years of bearing and shouldering the pain by himself, doing things he never wanted to do. Hibari concluded that the eyes really are a mirror to the soul, as Rokudou looked like a very mature child who was currently having a breakdown due to being discovered as such.

As being someone who didn't appear to care about anything, he most certainly felt bad for the child- No, this responsible teen. Within such short time, Hibari felt like he got to know so much about things he never thought of knowing until he was older. A seventeen year old boy, facing such dangerous situations at such a young age, and was still able to put up a smiling front and make it seem like he just had a bad fashion statement.

Rokudou's cries became more croaky, and heart-wrenching, as he began to hiccup as he sobbed. Hibari wondered if that was how a demon cries. It sounded painful, as if someone was crying for mercy, or begging for death. He wondered why it sounded so different from the typical shrill crying that normal people did.

It wasn't that he couldn't watch it go on, it was that he didn't want have Rokudou cry alone, or suffer alone, so he pulled him into a light embrace, letting his tears wet his shirt, it didn't matter, it dries quickly, and if it didn't, he could always change it. Rokudou seemed to cling onto his shirt as he cried.

Hibari patted his head for a bit, then stopped when Rokudou was trying to move away, which was not too long after he clung to him. He let go seeing that the younger male seemed to look a bit embarrassed, muttering apologies to him, whom he just replied with a pat to his head. They both heard knocks on the door. Rokudou hid his eye once again and straightened himself on the bed, while Hibari just glanced over to the door. The door knocked again, then Hibari looked at Rokudou who looked a bit perplexed. Hibari then cleared his throat and firmly said "Come in". When he said that, the ones knocking came inside again, revealing to be Giotto and his friends again.

"Sawada Ieyasu.." Hibari muttered, almost facepalming. "Hibari saaaan, I told you, its just 'Giotto', don't become like uncle" he nagged, lowering his head "But anyways, Rokudou-kun, the doctor said you'd be discharged tonight, isn't that nice?" he asked, running over to Rokudou who had the same perplexed look from before, looking from Hibari to Giotto, to Hibari, to the rest. "Gio, I think Rokudou-kun's scared of your obnoxious behaviour today" Kurokawa jested, making Giotto puff one of his cheeks "Kurokawa-san, I'm sure he knows I'm worried" he then chortled, seeing as Rokudou's eye was widened, which was the only change in expression.

Then Giotto straightened himself again, putting a hand on his throat, which for some reason, Rokudou just noticed, seemed to always be having a scarf around it, not in a sense of fashion, but to hiding something. Being someone who does that, he found it odd that the perfect being who called himself Giotto has something he hides.

Because Giotto didn't hear an answer from Rokudou, he looked worried "Isn't that good, Rokudou-kun?" he asked again, then remembering, they had class in like, two hours. He then chuckled a bit "Oh I get it, we have class soon, so its not good news, but fear not, I have your notes for Friday, Monday" he was about to give it to him, but then noticed, where is _he_ going to carry it? He didn't have a bag with him, so he kept it with him "I'll give them in class" he sheepishly said, seeing as Gokudera seemed to look at the time, and scoffing, while Yamamoto noticed the corners of Rokudou's eyes being a bit more red than it usually was. "Was everything alright here?" he asked, making Rokudou look at him and smile at him "Yeah, thanks" Yamamoto blinked a few times, before smiling himself "Alright then~"

Giotto put his hands on the lower side of the bed "Think you can walk, Rokudou-kun?" as he was addressed, he looked at the blond and smiled at him "I guess, I mean I'm not injured that badly" he shrugged, feeling stiff because he hasn't made a single movement in three whole days. He nonetheless tried moving himself out of bed, and because Giotto couldn't stand seeing him do it all by himself as he thought '_he might fall over'_, he offered support which he slapped away.

"See that wasn't too hard" Rokudou laughed, waving his hands "I should probably get to my dorm, how far is it from here?" he looked over to Hibari, then to Giotto. Giotto should know because they both are in the dormrooms, so he glaced over to him "Ahah.." he noticed the blond really didn't look like he wanted to answer that, seeing as how nervous he begun to look.

_'He sure is expressive today..'_ he thought, casting his glance over to the quiet Hibari, who blankly said "4 kilometers" which removed any sense of life from Rokudou, seeing as how his soul began to fly out of its body, and became more white than he already was, with a surprised look.

Giotto's hair stood when he saw that, hence his hair magically fixed itself in the partially spiky way, and he jumped, catching Rokudou's soul and carefully tried putting it back in the body, who still looked mortified. "Rokudou-kun, is something wrong?" he saw his mouth begin to move slightly, and a shaky hand raised up "That's so far!" he suddenly exclaimed, seeming as colour returned to him. "Just how did you guys manage to make it here by foot?!" he began to shout in a rather insistent way, the blond reacted rather amused, seeing how alive Rokudou finally looked.

"Hehe.. That's why we had the bus, I mean we have bus passes, so its no problem isn't it?" he flashed his student card, which showed a silver sticker on it, which was considered the bus pass "We have two hours, so the first hour could be getting you back to your dorm, then the other getting you in shape for class, neat idea?" he received a stare for his suggestion, then a break of laughter. "Alright alright, I get you, I get you" Rokudou composed himself again, covering his laughing mouth with a hand.

_'Or i could've..'_ Hibari thought to himself an incomplete sentence, which didn't seem to go overlooked as he hoped, seeing as Kurokawa and Yamamoto were trying to talk to him, hence they were able to tell he was thinking about something related to them.

"Nah, that won't be good, this Mr. Hibari was the one who brought him here, shouldn't he take him back?" she turned her head to Giotto, who was now looking out the window, while Rokudou was fixing his shirt as it kinda messed itself up "True, he could do that" he smiled over to her, who had the expression of a dead man "Kurokawa-san, generally I'd look at you for ideas other coming up with my own, what do you think?" Giotto looked more nervous than happy, seeing as Kurokawa had the same blank expression which seemed to look through people's souls.

Much like Hibari.

'_They probably might get along pretty well'_ Kurokawa cleared her throat "Well..~"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Because of skepticism, they went with Kurokawa's idea of going by Hibari's invitation to take them home, since they all live in the same building, and he had to return Rokudou's stuff to him, so it made sense in the end. It was also a shorter time, because it wasn't too much on a car's distance compared to a human's walk, which is usually four kilometers per hour, technically an hour in walking distance. By bus, there would be too much stops, and most of the time they don't take the main road, because they go on further neighbourhoods rather than to the point.

Either way, driving with Hibari was a most preferable situation. He may not have liked it so much, solely because he hates people grouping together, he said this time might be an exception, because Giotto was a family friend, and he was obliged to be friendly with him, and because he wasn't sure if Rokudou was fully recovered yet.

By the look of things, everyone was rather quiet, enjoying the view outside. Hibari wondered how did everyone manage to get inside, but then he remembered; some threw themselves in the trunk for some reason, saying it was spacious, which weirded Hibari out. Rokudou was on the front seat, his head facing downward as he was sleeping, Giotto was put in the middle of the back seats because his short height, Sasagawa on his left, and Yamamoto on his right. It was a joke when they told Gokudera to go in the trunk, but he complied!

The surprised looks on everyone's faces, amused on Giotto because he thought it was hilarious. Rokudou looked utterly confused, Kurokawa as if she wanted to smack the living lights out of him, Sasagawa was a mix of confusion as well, Miura told him the dangers of sitting in a dirty place like that, Yamamoto laughed, and Hibari only said "But I clean it everyday", Gokudera at Giotto's joke jumped in there, and it actually was spacious enough for more people to go in, so Miura insisted on going in, and Giotto was about to go in, because he started to feel bad, but Kurokawa already was there, telling Giotto she'd kill him if he was about to go in.

That's how the interesting ride from Hibari went as. Interesting it really was.

He managed to get them at their buildings, Giotto woke up Rokudou and went to their dormrooms to get their stuff ready. Rokudou had to get his clothes changed as well because of being in a hospital patient's outfit for the time being, which was why he took particularly long on getting set up.

He was standing in the room, alone with the blinds closed and the lights on, letting the dim light flicker on, even though it wasn't necessary.

Looking at his clothes which were neatly folded on the bed, he went to the closet to wear a different pair, which looked identical, because he didn't have much of a specific preference, as long as they looked fine on him, secondly he couldn't afford much.

He picked out a blue gradiented shirt, gradient because it was light on the top, gradually turning darker as it went lower, a light-clothed, but dark patterned scarf and a black sweater to go with it. He had his signature black gloves back on, and black pants.

He managed to get the pants on with no delay, but when he was changing his shirt, he stopped and gazed below. Half his side was still bandaged, and his figure looked slimmer, slimmer that he previously looked. He wondered when will be the time he'd only look like bones, because it didn't look so far, even though his face didn't have those bone lines on it, his face was still fine but tired looking, a bit disheveled if his hair wasn't contradicting it with its pure straightness, but his body looked awfully scrawny.

"Now if I was someone who was trying to diet, I'd be happy about this" he said to himself, putting back the patient shirt and went to the closet, pulling out a white shirt to wear underneath. As if it could make him look more normal, he hated catching people's attention with his low weight problems.

It's only a stupid and unnecessary pity that people do, that he dislikes the most.

Once he put on both the shirts, someone knocked on the door, which he first tied the scarf around him, then answered it, seeing it was Giotto and his group again. They really don't get tired of talking to him, do they, was something of Rokudou's initial thoughts, but then he remembered; he's part of the 'Vongola' group, so he is now a key member of it?

"Kufufufu.. What would you be doing if I was still changing, Sawada Ieyasu?" he teased, but let them in "Rokudou-kun, not you too.." Giotto laughed, lowering his head. "Ahn yeah, sorry for intruding, we wanted to ask if you needed help in anything" he elaborated. Rokudou looked at him as he was putting on his sweater "No, not really". Because it was fall approaching, it didn't look as though Rokudou was overly dressed, but Giotto clearly saw what he was trying to hide, feeling sympathetic about it.

There was a still moment of silence after Rokudou let them in, putting some of the things he thought 'were lying around' away. He didn't dare speaking first, and for some reason no one else would either. It was probably the stillness of the room that kept everyone as quiet as they were, but it wasn't something unusual for him, just a bit unusual for friends to be doing that.

First timers.

It's always like that. The first time you appear in someone's room, you show a mood of modesty and the unlikely feeling. This is not your comfort zone, but it gradually might, but not as quickly as it naturally would in your own room.

Giotto still had a calm expression, seeming to like the subtlety of the room. It was simple, but nice for a person living alone.

"Rokudou-kun's room is quite the modest kind, a nice change in scenery" he pointed out, going to the window, then opening up the curtains that seemed to be closed and covering the transparent screened window. It wasn't a massive window, but enough for someone like him and Rokudou to jump out and about.

It might've been different if they were adults however. They would probably get stuck and then have to manage their ways out.

Rokudou muttered a quick 'Oho?' to the comment, giving him a look, but then laughed a bit.

Rokudou's bed for suitable for one person, with a blanket of a light shade of blue, long enough to cover the whole mattress, and reaching the floor if it wasn't tucked in.

There were two more doors for the room, other than the entrance, which was for the closet and washroom, Giotto speculated. It's something every dorm room has, his included.

"So, how long are we going to stand here and admire a room that looks better than me?" he joked, leering downward to his short friend. He looked up with a small surprised expression, then had to make a rather contrary comment "Rokudou-kun, please take a moment and listen how you can NOT compare a human to a house!" he moved his arm to the side "and if you are, then you look a lot better than your room" one could tell that he was really trying to shout loudly as his cheeks showed signs of restraint and he had to take a good breath before talking or looking level again.

Kurokawa snickered a bit at it, while Gokudera panicked. "Alright alright, Sawada Ieyasu, now please take a breather" Rokudou brought his hands up a bit, saying yet another fussy joke talk. It appeared as if he really wasn't paying attention to the comments and was trying to get Giotto to stop. Giotto was in the state to ramble a bit more until Rokudou started to ruffle his head that he stopped doing so, and innocently looked up

"Kufufufu.. Thanks for the comment, Sawada Ieyasu." he then brought a finger from his other hand up "Also, Sawada Ieyasu sounds a lot better than Giotto, I wonder why you refuse to call yourself that" he sarcastically said with a dumbfounded expression, then goofily grinning as he saw Giotto's expression change from surprised to more of an exasperated one

"Rokudou kuuun!" he shouted, almost looking like he was going to cry, to which Rokudou coughed then made a pitiful look to him

His cheeks reddened wth either anger or embarrassment, and remained speechless for a moment, then threw a tantrum by throwing his fists around screaming his name as Rokudou and the others laughed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So after class, Giotto wanted to have the group togethe again for the evening, which Rokudou had to refuse going to, because of the fact that he still wanted to get the thing over with, and get his trident back from Hibari's room. He made up an excuse to the group that he was simply tired and wanted to go rest, which they didn't push further and let him separate from them. Moments later they all went back to their rooms.

He then remembered that he might have to get a new phone from 'his job', considering it had important information from them, and he wouldn't bother buying a new one because laptops can use emails rather than needing phone calls.

Or he just use payphones.

Either way, he would have to get a new one because they won't accept that as an excuse, and its not the first time he broke a phone, but it was the first time someone found him with his broken phone and while he was 'working'.

How was he going to cover for himself? They wouldn't care, its the fact that if Rokudou lies, that would be the end for him, and him alone, and probably those who were with him because they might execute an investigation on them.

He sighed as he leant against the brick wall, loling his head upward, leaving a hand on his waist. It was just a few days ago that the mission was over, he succeeded, but got noticed on the way. In a way, to a tangent, that's a mission failure due to unsuccessfully escaping.

He saw someone move their car infront of them, and if he wasn't aware enough, he wouldn't have found out that was Hibari waiting for him to come inside, with the door unlocked.

He moved forward to it, then clicked the door open, then rather than asking 'should i get inside?' he asked "How long were you waiting?" the driver, or Hibari himself, looked over to the side "Just a few minutes" he replied, waiting for Rokudou to settle inside, which he did, fastening the seatbelt on him.

Once again, due to the distance, he didn't have to drive too quickly, but he didn't have to take too much time in driving either. Rokudou wanted the drive to go on forever because he wasn't ready to face it, but time wasn't on his side as they made in a few minutes.

Back to the intimidating place he would call home. Perhaps intimidating was a bad word, perhaps odd sounds better.

Yes, odd.

Being in Hibari's room once again felt odd to Rokudou. Now that he was aware of what kind of person he was, and the family he lived with, he felt guilty about it.

Hibari didn't seem to care, and called Rokudou over to his side to brush his slighty unruly hair due to not being able to brush it for days.

Even though he had said that, he didn't dare pick up the brush he left on the bed, but Rokudou complied and went to him nonetheless. His room, his rules.

Rokudou was pulled in a gentle embrace, Hibari's arms circled around Rokudou's thin waist. Even though it was totally random and have him off guard as always, he didn't make a reaction, except for a slight raise in an eyebrow. By the strength put into it, he was pulled onto Hibari's lap, who buried his face on Rokudou's exposed collarbone. Even though he was asleep in a hospital room for three days, he had a soft smell of Sakura flowers which he saw during the Spring, now how long has it been since he has had anything to do with Sakura? A long time it was.

Rokudou moved his head upward again, exposing it further and to 'ruin the atmosphere', he decided to be funny "You know, if I wasn't as old as I am now, I would've reported about you" Hibari looked back at him with the same amusement "Why not report me now?"

"Well because seventeen years old isn't so young anymore, and you're only twenty, aren't you?" he lowered his head, and began to pat Hibari's head, and moved his hand when he brought Hibari moved away from his neck, with a know-it-all smile up his face "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he began to stroke and carress one of his thighs, making Rokudou simply look down at him rather questioningly "What's the plan, Hiba-" "Kyouya" "Ahah. What's the plan, _Kyouya-Sensei?_ Do you finally think I'm pretty?" his chin was held

"Do you like this sort of thing?" now he was confused. Hibari is asking for his confirmation? Oh wait..

Everyone _should_ be doing that, but no one does. This is why rape exists. He commended him for trying. He was always used to rough treatment such as being thrown around, or in a situation where he was completely helpless, it made no difference to him. Except that was only for them to injure him, such as bruising his pretty face, or cause him to bleed from his mouth due to his internal organs being pulverized.

It really made no difference to him.

"And if I said I don't care?" he inched a bit closer to steel-eyes, smiling ear to ear with his eyes lowered. That was always his prettiest smile, which always was found as an alluring one, as if makes him shield every imperfection about him, and make him look as though he is everything they need or is.

That he is a perfect being.

"You have my permission" he put a gloved finger on the predator's lips "Anything you want to do. I'm fine with it" predator was a wrong word to use, considering he wasn't as vicious as hateful like actual predators that Rokudou hates.

Hibari moved Rokudou's finger away from him, "No, I want your answer, as in you wanting it, rather than having myself doing improper things with you" he looked a bit angry in Rokudou's perspective, who removed the smile off his own face, looking at him, rather bothered than anything else

_Is he mocking me?_

"Alright fine, then if i say 'lay me down' you really would?" he asked, feeling like it was the most obvious question in the universe. Hibari smiled, instead of just saying 'yes', he gently laid Rokudou on the bed. He wasn't surprised that he complied, but rather he was wanting to laugh at it "come here" he instructed, waving his hand to bring him over. He was ontop of Rokudou now, looking at him with a light sense of admiration, or that's what he thought he saw. He slowly reached out, wrapping his arms around Hibari's neck, then smiled again, pulling him with low force, until their noses touched.

"Are you sure you don't want to be with a beautiful woman?" he asked, looking more sympathetic than anything else, Hibari almost called him stupid, but he didn't "Nah, I'd rather love a broken child than with a woman." that was his confession. Rokudou wasn't surprised that he was referred as a broken child, because in many knowing adult's eyes, they would view him as such.

Someone without a childhood, who wasn't loved before.

"Kuh.. If you love this broken child, then you need no permission from him. For he wouldn't mind having someone like you to be.. his" he then let Hibari kiss him gently. Being someone who never had experience in things such as these, he let a small gasp when he felt a tongue slip in, and arms around his waist. He let the other explore through, pulling him closer until they can't come any closer.

But it was through that moment there, that Rokudou felt Hibari's feelings for him, which he was not so certain of. He always thought Hibari looked at him as either a hindrance or just a child figure, but if he is doing things like this right now, that is acknowledgement of seeing him as more than just a child, but a person mature enough to handle it.

They both separated, Rokudou suddenly had the need to sit up, which made Hibari move back, sitting on the bed, looking at him with the same glance that Rokudou was giving him.

Nonchalance.

They both seemed rather calm of the situation, with faint specks of embarrassment. "I didn't think you'd be this tame" Rokudou commented, putting a hand on his lip, looking back at him, smiling slightly. Hibari gave a questioning look, but then smiled but said nothing. Naturally he wouldn't say anything, so why would he need to say something now?

Rokudou continued "I thought I'd be fighting a ferocious beast" then Hibari responded with a inaudible laugh "like last time?" Rokudou glared at him with a smile "You're still a predatory monster!" he joked as he noticed his lip began to bleed, but he laughed. He leant his head on him "My predatory monster." he closed his eyes again. they stayed like that for a few seconds until he began to speak again "Did you know, I never let anyone do that to me?" his eyes opened, due to his face being angled downward, both his eyes would've been visible.

Not to Hibari that is.

But they were visible.

Then he smiled, lowering his eyes again, he moved back to look at him. "They can injure me all they want, but this was off limits" because he knew that was to be shared only with someone you care immensely for, not something you can just give away, even when you are seducing someone. The first time always matters which was why he used to avoid it by doing something else. That could be hard considering he could pass up as a good looking woman or man who someone would be enticed to.

He felt an arm circle around his waist, which again pulled him into a hug. this time he hugged back, wrapping his arms around his neck "Of course, I was unsure about it, and I still am." he lamented. "Is it a coping mechanism, or is it actual love that people can experience" for he didn't believe in love, nor did he believe Hibari believe in it either. This wasn't love, it was simply a code of trust they put on each other. Rokudou simply owes him a few things, and he's trying to pay it back somehow, while Hibari is doing it for him to realize what it is, even if he doesn't know what love truly is.

He let his knees give in, dropping himself on the bed again. "Do you want to continue doing what you were?" he asked before he could say anything. Rokudou smiled at him, but Hibari looked as if he was looking elsewhere, and his hand even travelled there, as if he wasn't talking to him again.

Then he realized. He's looking at the wounded areas again. His long fingers at first softly trailed at it, then pressed at it, making him cringe and cry in pain. Hibari noted that and looked back at him "Don't forget you're still in a pretty bad condition" what he meant was that if they did supposedly continue, there would be an unnecessary amount of extra pain for Rokudou, and the chances that the wound would spurt open again still lasted.

Not to mention it was going so quickly. They only just met a few weeks ago, and already confessing to each other seemed rushed and only like an escape route from something else.

Wait.. Right, it is just an escape route. In Rokudou's case, it was to avoid the rest of the world from knowing who he really was, and possibly shun him for it. Hibari so far hasn't shown a sign of refusal, or rather, he showed signs of acceptance towards his behaviour and actions, which is in a way of accepting a human for their wrongs

Which is truly a consideration of love. To be able to accept one's beauty and their flaws and make it the best of them, makes you unconditionally love someone.

Thinking about something like that made Rokudou laugh. To think Hibari could be a vicious vampire like carnivore, but only to actually be a saint underneath.

It's like the opposite of him, who is gentle and kind on the outside, but is chaotic with his work, and is the one who murdered people for real.

Maybe if his life choices were different however..

"Hahah, I forgot that already" he joked, letting him latch off of him, but sit beside him. He followed him with his eyes, then saw he got up, so he looked a bit questioningly. Then he saw him picking up a hairbrush from the table. Rokudou sat up, smiling wryly at him "I thought you were lying about it" he walked over to him with slight difficulty due to having himself comfortable on his bed.

He was hit on the head with the said brush, "Oh yeah, that was for sneaking out" he rubbed his head, still smiling at him as Hibari grumbled. "Ow?"  
"You can take a bath if you want, you were in that dirty hospital for three days" "At least I don't smell like antiseptics" "At **least..**"

Hibari showed him where the washroom was, and told him about the things in the bath such as the shampoo, conditioner, soaps and other stuff. Because he offered, Rokudou thought, he should just comply with it.

It probably was an order by him. Knowing how he is, it was definitely not just an offer.

But of course, he's not a totally unconditional kind "And towels?" he asked, to which he just shrugged and then gave him a few "If they're too small, you could always shout at me about it"

With that he went to the bath, as Hibari went out of the room.

~space~

For a while now, he was able to sit in the bathtub, full of water warm enough to warm up his cold self. He watched as the bandages that adorned his body were getting soaked enough to detach from his figure. Dry blood was being washed off of his body by the warm water.

Just for a moment, he just watched. Simply observed. He didn't need to react in any which way, he just needed to watch as it went off him. It was naturally a strange sight, and if words can extend itself, it was gross. But he simply watched it, picking on the scab with his finger when it was exposed to the water. It stung a bit, and it also hurt when he picked at it, but he continued nonetheless.

He wasn't trying to harm himself, but he was trying to clean that portion as it was considered the dirtiest part on the outside. As he would quote, his heart is the dirtiest, just no one can see how badly it is hurt and dirted. Like an incurable illness.

He stopped when he felt like he was causing only more harm, then remained unmoved, looking slightly to the side, then smiled at the rubber duck that was floating in the water.

"Even a guy like him has a rubber duck.._ kufufufufu_" he snickered a bit, flicking the duck with a finger.

It looked a lot like a bird he saw in the house, so he assumed that it was a toy of the bird, rather than a rubber duckling. Plus note, it was also quite round, and had a small beak compared to how the ducklings usually look.

He found it cute that he had a rubber bird in the bath, for someone scary looking like him.

After a while, he was finished bathing, including washing his hair and face, he had himself covered in the towels provided, and one idly sitting on his head as he peeked out by opening the door a bit.

Hibari seemed to be writing something, and looked up when he heard the door creaking. Rokudou smiled at him, he didn't change his expression, saying "Don't put your shirt on" simply. Rokudou snorted "What, you want to see my cute little curves?" he heard a small and quite laugh as a response, then a bag in his hands "Ohhh, the bandages?" he went back inside, then came out a minute later, wearing his pants, and holding the rest of his clothes. "I can do them myself" he brought a hand to Hibari, which he took to pull him over to him, seating him on the chair he was previously sitting on, Rokudou rolled his eyes "You really like doing that, don't you?" he received no response as his bandages were being put on carefully.

He found him to be putting them on pretty nicely, making sure he didn't miss a spot, but it was hard to miss considering he stood out a bit. It made him smile, if only little. His gentleness always had him wondering, 'was he the same person?'

A minute later he was done, then he tapped Rokudou's back, who looked back at him "It's done, you could put your clothes back on" and so he did, making sure he wouldn't make them drop the bandages.

He then had his hair brushed, using Hibari's brush, pushing the long strands back but keeping the shorter ones in the front and over his eye.

And after a lot of 'distractions' he would call, later, he looked over to Hibari, who was still writing something. "So Mr. Hibari" he didn't receive a reaction or reply, "Hibari sensei?" nothing "Alright fine, _Kyouya Sensei_" he received a glance "Yes?" he's still trying to get rid of the use of honourifics. He must be _pretty_ frank with him "You were only supposed to give my Trident then send me back, what happened to that?" he received only a reply of "hn" and more paper writing. Rokudou looked a bit irritated. He walked over to him "Hello~?" he waved his hand over to him, and received nothing as a response again. He fisted his hands, then walked back, then heard a knock on the door which scared him. He was scared if it was someone he knew because they might misunderstand something.

well its not a misunderstanding. They did have something shared together enough to pass up as a couple.

But nonetheless he hid in the closet, Hibari snorted at that and had the door answered by simply saying "Come in"

It was his 'friend' Kusakabe, who came in. Rokudou kept himself hidden so he wasn't able to see what he looked like, but judging by his voice he assumed it was someone much older.

Which was a wrong assumption considering they are the same age, Hibari and Kusakabe.

Hibari gave him the paper before he could ask, and Rokudou tried peeking in to see who he was, resulting him to almost laugh at his hairstyle, which was rude, but Rokudou is not a nice person.

He left the room pretty quickly, after a short chat with Hibari. Rokudou noted on how close the two seem to be, with small words they share a lot of information, not everyone can explain themselves in two to three words unless you were explaining about something but being a fool about it. But the two of them were able to do that in matters of seconds and explain a lot to each other.

Which is something admirable, when people are able to do that. but how little does he know that he and his friends do that quite a lot as well, so it shouldn't be something astonishing.

But he was still caught simply waiting, rather impressed with his friend, or his advisor. And NOW it looked like he was paying attention to Rokudou as he motioned him out of the closet, who complied with a joke which was ignored.

"Alright, what did you want to ask?" he asked, giving Rokudou his 'undivided attention', which scared him more than making it easy as he was intimidating as someone who came from a year or probably ten years of strict regulations and back brainwashed by them, authorizing his authority on others. How freightening is how people can get brainwashed by others.

He kept a level stare at Rokudou, not bothering to ask again, seeing as how he knew the other heard him, and that was why he was reacting with silence. He'd reply in a minute, but first there will be a reaction.

Rokudou on the other end, gazed into steel-onyx eyes, searching for something in them, even though he never found answers in eyes which seem so guarded with nothing. Even though they weren't lifeless like his blue eye, they certainly were something that he liked looking at.

Or to distract himself into.

"Well?" he raised a brow, Rokudou waited. "Are you caught in a daze because of my cool eyes?" Hibari then joked, of course, Rokudou laughed at it because of the simplicity of it.

no, the joke sounded like his silly jokes that the other would ignore. "So you do listen to them" he smiled to him, then levelled his expression to a normal one

"You already know what we need to talk about" was all he said, before waiting for Hibari to say something further.

"I'll get straight to the point: Rokudou Mukuro, quit your job" he firmly said, receiving a twitch of an eye from Rokudou. His face spoke levels of 'why?' or 'that has nothing to do with you', but he vocallized none of it, but stared at him. "If you are concerned about finances, I'll take care of that" from a glare, it became a look of worry now. Hibari pressed forward "I don't care if you have ten children, I'll deal with that. But you need to get yourself out of unnecessary trouble" he finished, looking at his hands which were in his lap, then looked up "You understand?" he ended with a question. Rokudou was left to only say "..Yes" to whatever he was saying because of the pressure of fighting back was strong.

"I can get you another job for you to work on, but this could kill you if you continue" while he was saying that, he wondered, just how much times did a situation like this happen to Rokudou? How much times did he have to almost kill himself to get where he was standing.

He understood that yes, he's a strong child, but he is only a young person that could do so much and get away with it. It's a sad life to live. Furthermore, his soul probably has already died with the first murder he had to committ.

Maybe that's why he calls himself Mukuro.

Mukuro meant a corpse. And on the inside, Rokudou's eternally bleeding heart was dead. He could even look like a corpse when he's not smiling and moving. That didn't mean he was ugly or anything, no. For a corpse he was beautiful. But as a person, he looks tired, given up, and depths of sadness embedded on himself. His snow white skin almost looked like decomposed skin, except he perhaps used moisterizers to keep his face and neck proper, his hands are always gloved, and Hibari worried to see what are under those even.

When he saw him in the hospital room that day, he practically was called dead and almost abandoned because the incompetent staff thought he was dead and his spirit was back with revenge in his right eye.

It was like he had to take care of him because of the suspicion everyone had when he was brought over by Hibari.

While Hibari..

Hibari didn't want to see something like that. Even though he usually acts as if he doesn't care about anything at all, its only that he cares so much that he hides it. Or that his face doesn't show it very well, but he more than concerned that he continues to work behind the scenes to fix things up with whoever had problems with.

That was why he was considered quiet, because no one would notice the work he would mostly do, and it doesn't get overlooked, but it gets questioned as to how this happened, but he wouldn't outright say 'I did it' as he wasn't the kind who claims credit, but he was, however, the kind who might bring it back saying 'you owe me' a moment to laugh there, but he would be the kind who does things as such, but that is only what a normal person would do or say. {not really}

Either way, seeing people who are important to him be hurt is like stabbing himself in the heart, even if his face didn't show it. Seeing how Rokudou grew onto him for a while now, made him quite important to him, even though the teenager bugs him a lot by hiding so much from everyone, and lying about most things, and in general, the fact that he plans on enduring everything by shielding everyone away from him irritated him to no end.

That was why he would say he hates him, and wants to punch him real good for that. As for now, seeing their intimacy being just fulfilling a need, he was the only one who could convince Rokudou to step out of the shell he locked himself inside, even though it was confusing as to how he could do that, he knew it was only he who can, and should be the one who does.

Another reason as to why he was much irritated seeing him hurting and sad earlier. Even though it would make him happy to see him expressing himself, as it was, he was angry that he got himself with more pain, so talking it out would take even longer.

And his job harder.

This is also why he says 'children are difficult' even though he's no child, he's in college and he is aware of everything that he is doing and the impacts on it. He's not naive, he's very clever and is very elusive, like a fox when compared. This time was just a fluke, because nothing can be hidden forever from Hibari Kyouya, but you can hide the world as Rokudou Mukuro, usually without traces.

Once again, this is Hibari Kyouya, no matter how much you can hide or try to escape, he can find you and exploit what you were hiding. It was only a matter of time when it would slip out of Hibari's tongue that he knows what Rokudou has truly done.

Hibari took a moment to look at him again. He seemed to be looking elsewhere, with his eyes lowered and his gaze on the grounds. He noticed that his knees were giving up standing, and he was lowered to his knees, and his face looked from the ground to where Hibari was. His mouth was moving, but Hibari couldn't hear anything coming from it, but it certainly was saying something.

His hair moved from his eye of the right, which stared, or maybe, glared would sound preferable. Glared at Hibari's eyes who simply glanced back as if it was nothing. Rokudou stopped speaking, but his breathing became a bit coarse, and his eye widened.

He thought, this is like a test of trust. The eye of his was testing him, was he able to keep Rokudou safe from others as he says he will? Is he a good enough person?

It looked as if Rokudou lost control of his own self, and the doctor sounded a bit correct that there was someone else other than Rokudou inside of him, who was probably the reason why Rokudou has such a strong murderous intent.

The eye was enough to show how much he could hate someone, as it bled with hate. Beautifully crimson, it shone as if it was adorned in the most prettiest red one can possibly find, and held just as much as heaviness that Rokudou's soul carries.

He let his finger roam around the eye, as if tracing it again. His head lowered, making Hibari move his hand away from him. Once again, it was almost night now, and Rokudou didn't bother eating anything from the start of the day and till now even, perhaps that was why he looked tired.

Then he remembered, he is those kind of students who also have frequent times of fainting during the day, but everyone always said it was low blood pressure. But putting pieces together, it would make sense if it was because of the eye's power that was consuming him half of the time, and Rokudou does nothing against it, he doesn't even struggle to stay awake, he just lets it hurt him, lets it take over him, and in the end lets him be taken out of.

It was doing it just now even. Trying to take over and fill its satisfactions, its needs, the things it wants to do. This must've been the bigger reason as to how Rokudou used to do the jobs, he let his alter ego take control and kill them.

How sad.

He must've felt as if blood can never erase from his hands, his soul, his heart.

Must be a tiring life, a regretful one.

He then saw something seeping out of his shirt, and if he wasn't smart enough, he wouldn't have noticed that it was blood coming out of his shirt. Usually these kind of side-effects come from struggling.

Perhaps he still wanted to spend time with Hibari as Rokudou, not someone else who is out for human lives. Not the murderous _Mukuro_.

Even if that meant he had to struggle alone.

Back to the situation in hand, Hibari's first thought was to stop the bleeding that was occuring. Because this isn't the time to be fighting, seeing as that would destroy Rokudou further, he quickly, but carefully hugged him. Perhaps too much was going on for Rokudou that he even is trying to exceed how long he spends during a day. Or probably it was the other way around.

He had a conversation related to that with Giotto as well, once again. When it came to actual conversations, he could only hold it with Giotto, or Sawada Ieyasu, because Alaude was as quiet as he was, and seemed a bit stressed with his own annoyances, Sawada Tsunayoshi doesn't put up well with Hibari, Sasagawa Ryouhei is a bit of an idiot in his view, Reborn is busy, and that was where he didn't bother with the rest.

But Sawada Ieyasu liked speaking about things with him, and due to his inherited hyper intuition, he even noticed Hibari's dotting behaviour, or a bit of possessive, behaviour when it comes to Rokudou, and how his eyes harden and seem so focused when he is brought up.

And because he couldn't it much from Sawada Ieyasu, he decided to tell him of it, that is in Hibari's language, and that sounds a bit off. Of course the blond understood his way of speaking and always told him; _'if they happen to be struggling alone, lend a shoulder. Accept them of their flaws and turn them into beauty about them. Don't let them suffer alone'_

He asked him a few times as to why would someone do that, as in shouldering their burdens, as everyone has their own burdens to carry, he would always respond in ways Hibari would call cheesy, and weak.

He has stated it already a few times, Rokudou is not weak at all, he's only young, and is exceeding what he could carry on his own. he's not only carrying his own, but ar least the burdens of six more people, and has reached his limit on doing so.

Rokudou remained unmoving in his arms, seeming to take in the comfort he was receiving. If he could voice out anything, he would be telling Hibari how tired he was. Tired of everything. The world, the burdens in it, the fact that he can't see what others see, the regrets he has, the remorse he could never possibly deserve to hold, the sorrow he feels thinking, the inability to make things better. All that he's been living for seemed to be falling down at him, rendered useless.

But his voice refused to speak, as his eyes began to close slowly. Hibari kept a gentle, but a strong hold of him, hoping that he could feel it rather than him having to say that he is trying to protect him. Hibari was lucky, that Rokudou did feel secure, as if he was guarded by someone other than himself. He always felt secure about Hibari, enough to be able to sit calmly with him and tell him everything he needs to know, if only he just asked him to.

He lowered himself off of the bed and sat on the floor, keeping Rokudou in a secure embrace. He began to pat him, rubbing up and down his back. He heard a sigh escape Rokudou, so he tried looking at him, hunching himself a bit lower to see. Rokudou's eyes were closed, the blood that was overflowing from the tourniquets stopped, as his body began to relax, and weakly breathe.

In a matter of minutes, he was sleeping in the same position, Hibari remained there, unmoving himself even if he wanted to, he refused to move if that had to wake up Rokudou and worry him again. When he was certain that Rokudou was sleeping, he carefully lifted him and put him to rest on the bed once again, covering him with blankets that were on it.

"gonna grab a bite to eat" he sighed, giving Rokudou's head a pat before leaving the room.

He came back a few minutes later, placing what he would consider edible, near the nightdesk that he had, and watched Rokudou as he slept. He perhaps had said it before, but it really looked like a corpse being put in a casket. Sometimes it looked like he was awake, but most of the time it looked like he was simply lying there, not going to budge.

His phone began to ring and he answered, pretty angrily, with a growl with almost every letter he was speaking out. Once more, it was a call from the 'annoying and annoyingly wise; Sawada Ieyasu' or the 'stupid nickname; Giotto'. Even though it wasn't a really stupid name, Hibari didn't like it one bit. Why can't he stick with a normal name like Ieyasu?

Forgetting that he began to talk a bit with him. He kept his voice low, even though it was naturally low, to make sure Rokudou doesn't hear him talking. He could just leave the room as well, but he was making sure he wasn't getting up any time sooner.

Like the last time he left Rokudou alone, he jumped out of the window and did that dangerous job!

This time he made sure there is no escape for him.

Giotto told him over the phone how the day passed for Rokudou because he asked about it, and as he expected, it sounded like any normal day would pass. He clicked his tongue at that. But at the same time he was a bit relieved at that, at least people didn't see an oddity about him, and that nothing too jeopardizing happened during class.

The call lasted for around fifteen minutes, which is very long considering how much he doesn't seem to speak. the rest of the night was spent in his room, making occasional looks at the bedside to check if he was still there or awake.

Staying awake wasn't a problem to either of them, knowing that the two of them do it almost on a natural basis, so he wouldn't be surprised if he woke up in the middle of the night, or he staying up watching in case something happens for the whole night.

It was almost anticipating that Rokudou woke up at half past eleven, or 11:30 for easy words that Hibari acted like he wasn't watching. The food he left for him got cold so he put it away. Rokudou's eyes opened groggily, appearing to still be pretty sluggish when he tried to sit up. He clutched near his stomach, and Hibari wasn't really sure if he was in pain, or was it hunger. He glanced over to Hibari who stood up from his chair he was sitting on, then smiled wryly at him.

"Does it hurt?" he asked, inching closer as he caught up to him, checking if it was still bleeding or not, as it was earlier. It should've stopped by now because he wasn't moving himself for quite a while, four hours at the very least? But it wasn't too short of a time, but it wasn't too long either. "Ahah, not really" he answered, lifting his shirt a bit to see why is he looking so cross about it. Then he realized, it was before. The tourniquets that Hibari had to put on after his shower seemed soaked in red, as if it was starting to bleed again. But right now it was dry, but still meant it bled before. He frowned at that.

"You haven't eaten anything for the whole day, haven't you?" he asked to change the mood in the room that happened to turn into a droll like one as Rokudou was sulking. He looked up at him, then smiled again "Hm.. but I'm not hungry" he paused, then joked "I am though, _hungry for you_" Hibari snorted as Rokudou choked out a laugh.

"You're kidding me, I'm not on the list" he flicked his forehead, smirking a bit, then making a serious expression again "I'll get something for you, stay put or I'll bite you to death" and if Rokudou didn't remember what happened when he did not do as he said, he would've said something, but instead he stayed put. "On a condition" he piped in, Hibari turned his face as he was about to leave the room "What" then Rokudou smiled "We're perhaps soul mates now, let's do something cute together" Hibari raised a brow. "Don't get over the line, Rokudou Mukuro. You're still a brat" but if one could see it, they could've seen a snicker from Hibari as he left the room.

Later, Rokudou refused to eat as he had already stated that he was in no state to be eating, but because his body needed the energy, Hibari didn't let it slide.

"Really. It's fine, I can survive not eating for days" he commented, waving a hand at him. The problem was, it **has** been a few days since he had actual food other than what the IV that was attached on him, so Hibari didn't find that as a good excuse. "Alright then, don't eat" Hibari took a spoonfull and shoved it into Rokudou's mouth who made a muffled noise upon letting it enter, and let the spoon out of his mouth. He glared at him, but received a glare back so he quieted down and swallowed. "How can I forget you will always have things your way" he meekly said, looking at the plate, then at Hibari with a sheepish smile "Let me guess, you're this rough with people the reason why you're scared to it with me, right?" Hibari grumbled "I don't know and I don't care about it. Besides you're just a first year, why are you so desperate to do _that_ with someone?" at the question, he shrugged "I thought you were interested? You always sound strangely kinky" he was referencing all the bite to death comments he had received during the past few weeks. A normal person would call him either a cannibal, or kinky, due to reasons that one doesn't need to explain for.

"Well I'm not all into it" he felt a bit shameful as he thought, he was leading a student on. That could be considered wrong because they don't know a lot of things "Ah that's cool" Rokudou sounded a bit relieved when he said that, as he slowly began to eat a bit of the food given to him. It didn't taste bad, but he was used to skipping a lot of meals, and eating in some place that wasn't your home was strange. "You're not into it, either." rather than asking he said it like a statement. Rokudou nodded at him "I know I know, I look like the kind who would be into it, but I'm not very much so. Maybe if I was better looking" the word he was looking for, was being sexy. Being bony and thin isn't all that, its rather creepy, or so stereotypes say.

Not that he wanted big muscles, but he wanted to look a bit stronger than he does now as he looks like someone who can get blown away with the wind. He let his knees hug at his torso as he looked down on the bed he was sitting on. The bowl was put aside by Hibari, as he sat beside him when he came back from putting it away. Hibari put Rokudou's head to rest on his shoulder, looking rather embarrassed by it, but he did so. Rokudou looked up at him, then smiled at him. He felt his head being patted by him, but nothing was said. This silence was pretty nice, as it just put you at ease as if no words were even required for anything. It was as if they were the only things that existed in the world, there were no people, no sky, nothing, just the two of them. There was no space either, just a small spot where the two were sitting, and that was that.

The ringing of the phone got the two out of their trance as Hibari had to answer it. Judging by the way he spoke in small words, it probably was work related, or just something that didn't interest him in the slightest.

Or it was just his normal way of speaking, as always.

He ended the call a minute later, then looked at Rokudou who stared then closed his eyes. It probably was none of his business, so he wouldn't pipe in. Hibari noted that, and of course, didn't tell him about it.

He probably didn't want to know about it either.

So for 'compensation', Hibari gave him a small little peck on the cheek. Rokudou looked at him apathetically "Hm?" then Hibari answered "Because I didn't tell you, its compensation"

Rokudou sighed with a smile. A silly one he is.

This was going to be a long night, a quiet one as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He walked to his class the next day to avoid suspicion of others. It wasn't like he was avoiding Hibari, however, as when he left, he skipped breakfast and ignored the fact to pack in lunch, but gave Hibari a small goodbye kiss as he left, as he went for his work shift as well.

He met with Giotto when he walked by, seeming to be talking about normal things like "Yesterday wasn't too much of a bad day, let's hope that today outshines it, however."

The thing he liked talking with Giotto, was the fact that he would never make a negative comment or have a bad view of things. It was either 'not too great' or 'not the best' but it was never 'horrible' and 'the worst', and Rokudou liked that there was someone who practices optimism in the group, as he is considered the leader-like one, and he took that role quite seriously from a standpoint of he has to stay kind and strong so that his friends can rub off of it rather than being sad because it would influence the whole team.

Rokudou snorted at one of the comments he made about hair, stating that Sawada Tsunayoshi tried to make his hair look like fire, and he had to reason that he was styling it like Cloud Strife. But once again, when he explained it, he made no hints of negativity in his words, and said in a polite manner, which was why Rokudou laughed at it.

Sometimes he's too kind for his own good.

But that was why he was friends with him, he didn't want Giotto to dirty his hands anywhere, and made a one sided promise to himself that he would be the one who would dirty his hands for Giotto if the situation calls for it.

That's what friends do, don't they?

Getting to class, they regrouped with the rest and as any group would do, started chatting with one another. Kurokawa said that there was a new student enrolling, and even though colleges are not like high school who announce it in front of everyone, somehow she heard of it, but she didn't know who it was.

It was when the teacher of the class came in, that someone came in a bit late, not really late as they had ten minutes till classes actually start, but later than the teacher.

"Wow~ So this is my class for today" he commented, almost looking like he was interested.

At the sound of his voice, Rokudou snapped his head in surprise to look at who entered. It was as if his heart immediately stopped when he recognized who that was. It was Byakuran from that mission he had not too long ago!

Byakuran felt a gaze at him, so he looked back, then smiled as he pointed "Oh hey, its Mukuro-kun from earlier~ I didn't know you study here. What a surprise!" he replied joyfully. Giotto nudged Rokudou's shoulder as he seemed to freeze in place, "Rokudou-kun, its fine. It's just a student, isn't it?" he said sympathetically, as Rokudou finally got control of himself and looked at Giotto "Yeah, yeah.. Just a student" Gokudera and the others wondered how he knew him, and judging by how Rokudou froze earlier, they wondered if it was something bad.

Rokudou swallowed a lump in his throat. Whoever was pulling strings, were definitely trying to get him in trouble.

Perhaps a solution was; keep Byakuran away from others before he outright tells them that Rokudou was on a mission for guarding him earlier

* * *

**Aaaand that's all for this chapter, now hopefully the next one wouldn't come so late.**

**I apologize for the lack of updates in Summer, ironically when I should be having time, I can't write.**

**As always, any sort of feedback is greatly appreciated~**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Sorry for the huge delay, ontop of not being able to write on holidays, bad writer's block hitting in.**_

_**..and a hindrance to the main pair because I like writing cliche for trouble**_

_**Disclaimers: Katekyo Hitman REBORN! does not belong to me, it belongs to Akira Amano~**_

* * *

_**Chapter 7: Of secrecy**_

What happened earlier was that going for classes, Rokudou didn't know there would be any more new alumni enrolling, so he was caught off guard with seeing newer people. The one that caught his eye however, was someone he had known for having to guard him as he was taken back home. Who knew he lived that close.

Wait.. He lives at Namimori then? That's ridiculous.

How very pretentious.

But back at the task in hand, who knew he would be a student in the same program even? Rokudou avoided his glance, and went back to the others, Byakuran noticed that and took a sly step forward. Now he would've been pretty close if Giotto didn't stand in his way with one of the kindest look on his face.

"heeh, who are you?" Byakuran asked, bending a bit to look at him, smiling just as kindly to him. "Oh don't tell me" when he saw Giotto's mouth open slightly, he interrupted him. His head was ruffled by the tall white haired man. "You're Sawada Ieyasu-kun, right?" An angry tick came on Rokudou's face as he slapped Byakuran's hand away from the surprised Giotto's head

"_Kufufu.. _Sawada Ieyasu's head isn't something you can just play around with, Byakuran" he smiled, but in truth he was angry. Angry at himself for not disguising himself, Byakuran for being here, and Giotto..

Giotto did nothing but stand in between the two. Why was Giotto protecting him, made him angry too, he considered. "Also, I should be guarding you" he laughed, gently moving Giotto to the side. "Rokudou-kun, I'm sorry but you didn't look alright with him here" Rokudou smiled at him, and Giotto sighed as he tried whispering that to him.

"Anywho, it is nice to meet you Byakuran-kun, please refer me as Giotto" Byakuran cutely tilted his head

"Giotto? Not Ieyasu-kun?" everytime one would say Sawada Ieyasu, Giotto would always have this involuntary flinch. That was how much he disdained it.

The teacher called them for going back to their seats, so they all sat. The hilarious part being, the group now knew that Rokudou was familiar with this Byakuran guy, so they all surrounded him, putting him in the middle of the row they are sitting on, to make sure he doesn't get close, like a hilarious protection sort of thing. A normal person would be uncomfortable while the teammates would be laughing their butts off. Rokudou was clearly frustrated at that.

He forgot his phone was broken, otherwise he would try and get himself occupied with that, so instead he pretended to be reading his notes for class. What a way to start class, Rokudou lamented.

When they got out, Rokudou then remembered, he wasn't supposed to stay far from him, he was supposed to keep people away from him before he admits something strange about him. It was too risky had they know about what he has to do for a living. They'd tell him that he deserves to live in prison for all he cares.

No good.

He'll have to keep Byakuran's mouth shut. Even if he hasn't said anything yet.

Yet..

Swallowing a lump in his throat, he mentally smacked himself as he awkwardly trotted over, not directly to him, but in that crowd of people who seemed drawn to him like a magnet. It was rather troublesome to him to be standing in a bunch of people like this, better than Hibari at crowds who goes into this mood of beating everyone up, Giotto was lucky Hibari was in a good mood that night when he loaded his car with a lot of people. But that didn't mean that Rokudou did not have a pretty bad headache that showed him he really wasn't going to last long. the other problem was how he stood out so much in crowds due to his peculiar likings of wearing jewelry like Gokudera, and the sense of wearing a lot of black.

Basically how punks stand out in a group of preppy people, and how Byakuran was so white that he shone like a snowflake. That one clean spot in a dirty furniture, the bright light in a dull room. Contrasting greatly to Rokudou's black, save for his paler skin. The only spot Byakuran probably had colour was his skin, and that tattoo thing, and his eyes maybe.

It was easy to tell who was standing when they stand out like this. Everyone knows that Rokudou doesn't hang out with "losers" other than Giotto and his gang. Whether he's comfortable with them..

Oh scratch that. Rokudou's steps became a bit slower, not like people walk fast, and threw his arm on the wall for support. With the sign of a headache coming, he knew he was going to faint any second.

He really was going to get nowhere with this.

But as providence will always provide, Byakuran turned around when walking and noticed him, who straightened himself and sighed. The white haired one smiled at him "Oh! I thought you weren't going to show me around" he laughed, and Rokudou's frown deepened. Was he a high-schooler? Maybe a middle-schooler.

"I didn't think colleges have to show you around" not many students do, but Rokudou was incorrect with that. Rather there are student guides who help you locate classes in case you're lost.

Then again, he had Giotto help him out. He pointed at the bunch of people around the new student "A crowd's dying to do that, why should I steal the honour from it?" snickering a bit, the students looked from him to the newbie. That was true..  
"Awwh why not? We're friends, aren't we?" if Rokudou was any stupid, he would've believed in that fake expression of woe being an actual sad face. But people were dumber than him, giving him a look as they started talking amongst each other. Letting another tired sigh, he resigned to that.

If that was the way to keep the secret running, do it then.

Byakuran beamed at the grumbling male who looked as if he was going to fall any second. Kindly, he dismissed the others who already seemed busy in their discussion, and trudged away. They came to a considerable distance when they actually started to speak with one another

"Let's make this clear; this is a college and I don't want to have people knowing where I work as" saying it a bit quickly, he glowered at the other.

"What made you think I'd mention it?" the other's smile really was getting to him. He knows that he is quite the stepford smiler, but an constant innocent smile bugged him to no end. Yamamoto was an exception because even when he was genuine it was the same, and he really isn't scheming anything other than having a good time with others.

"Kuhah. You kept mentioning it!" he snapped with a laugh, making the other a bit surprised, then back to a smile.

"Now now, I was only saying you helped me a lot" he waved a hand at him

"And why is it such a secret? You still do look like a murderer" a surprised look was given to him then "A stereotypical one, Mukuro-kun. Relax" then it returned to a glower

"Either way, I can't let them know, so have that as a favour of mine" they went back to the student dorms. It might be a bad idea to tell him where his room was, but it's better than to find out on his own

"That's a lot of interest for a favour" Byakuran whistled, or pretended to, Rokudou glanced at him.

"It's more than enough. This place is huge and it was a lot of places to go" he half-lied, just to have him go with it, but he refused.

"That really is.. _a lot of interest_, Mukuro-kun" he repeated, opening his cutely closed eyes.

Rokudou then thought, maybe show the rooms some other time. They have time for another day, it was alright.

He only wanted to know about his classes, so he could easily shrug this off.

He was getting tired anyway. It was evident because other than lolling his head around at a few places.  
He then almost tripped by an obstacle in course, but was stopped by a hand that stretched like those line-up tolls. Rokudou looked to the side, seeing that his 'friend' Byakuran was trying to keep him from bashing into the tall black pillar of stone; Hibari Kyouya.

It was by accident when he looked a bit nervously at him, and of course, the white head picked up really quickly on that. Hibari didn't seem to look at anything specific until he heard someone then looked down, seeing two "mischevious" students. Now it wasn't like Hibari was super tall, but he was taller than the both of them, and he does get lost in the clouds _all the time_.

"Please look where you're going" he sighed to the both, reminding Rokudou of the first day they met.

He laughed gently, saying "You have my deepest apologies, my dear prince" and doing a curtsy toward him, rather than gently pulling at their dresses, he did with his coat.

The white head, snorted again "Hey hey.. Aren't I that lovely prince now?" he snaked an arm around Rokudou's neck to pull him closer, making the adult raise a brow.

Yes, _raise a brow._ At him. _Suspiciously_.

"_kufufu_, who said that?" he shook his hand off, then gazed at Hibari and lost the remaining colour on his face. He looked.. so **angry**. He wasn't believing the jokes this heir who-happened-to-be-a-jester was doing, was he?

"Aaahh.. Hibari Sensei, it's nothing like that" he once again, nervously, waved his hand to shrug away the negativity coming from the man infront of him, or beside facing him.

Byakuran then held Rokudou's gloved hand "Now if you excuse us, we're going to have our cute love nest after a tour" Rokudou almost exploded at the comment, about to say 'whoa where did that come from!?', but instead he shook his head and looked at Hibari again, knowing he was going to regret that.

And he did. Seeing that Hibari really looked like he was ready to murder someone.

Byakuran for the umpteenth time, knew that and that was why he was leading him on as a joke and ran off with Rokudou who began to shout "Don't listen to what he's saying! It's just a TOUR" before surrendering to run away.

He thought Hibari would chase after him. To reclaim him. To say something that was against Byakuran's words, to make the other retract the foolish words spurting out of his mouth..

But rather than not doing all of it, he looked too surprised to even think.

Rokudou didn't blame him. He would've been shocked.

Then again, he was almost about to faint in any second, considering the sudden rise and fall of energy that occurred. He got lucky that Kikyou came and snagged the marshmallow, and noticing that his 'friend' wasn't feeling all too great.

Wait.. Kikyou? Where did he even come from? Now he hoped he wasn't a student as well.

It wasn't like it would be terrible to have a smart, flamboyant Kikyou in his class, but the idea that more troublesome people are coming by was the trouble. Who knows what his companion Bluebell might be telling Dokuro, had she been going the same school as her.

Troublesome.

Kikyou was on the part of taking Byakuran back home when his face suddenly paled "Rokudou-san.. There's someone behind you" he pointed unsurely, then smiled a bit apologetically.

"Have fun, Mukuro-kun~" he sang as he then began to chat with Kikyou who shot the same look again. At a few seconds time, in a sense, slow, Rokudou then noticed he was he was referring to _his_ back. He was too tired to panic, so he turned with a resigned smile and said "You are so cute sometimes" to the man emitting a murderous aura at him.

His cute Mr. Hibari Kyouya, the dedicated Namimori Academy's office worker. The one who would throw Alaude over the bus to save the building if necessary, who'd murder Sawada Tsunayoshi had he made a _dent_ on the precious Namimori.

Cute Mr. Hibari Kyouya, who wants to protect Rokudou from himself.

Cute Mr. Hibari, who is already, as if it was so anti-climatic, jealous. Yes, jealous that Byakuran is "getting along" with Rokudou.

"Cute would be.. when this smashes your little head" he gestured by bringing an arm up, which had a metallic rod-like cylinder with a series of neatly divided divisions. If they were wording it as a weapon, it's a tonfa.

Odd. Tonfa are usually wooden, but oh well.

Rokudou froze for a second. he was probably going to die by his body decaying on him, or that fist with a fearsome weapon. Like a bolt to the blue, as it previously happened, he suddenly had a rise in energy, enough to run in possibly.. a really fast speed. Dart out like a shooting bullet they say.

Hibari clicked his tongue. He really wanted to take it out somewhere, and on someone. And unfortunately Kusakabe and his bad timings..

Kusakabe just came back for a break time since it's after-noon and working hard. An unfortunate man indeed. But a man has to do his job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as Rokudou was making his way to his room, he now bashed into someone and practically lost any bit of strength that welled inside.

Before he really lost consciousness, he had a few seconds of glancing at who it was, who seemed to fall as well.

Strange baggy clothing, and fancy tattoos. Though other than the tattoos, his hair was as blonde as Giotto's, except his was more bleached, and this man's was yellow like how children colour the sun to be.

Rokudou's eyes formed comical swirls as he fell, completely out of cordination as he heard the person call out to him.

Though he wasn't the only one who was making first glance observations. Seemed that the man whom he bumped into was also making mental judgments as he was. Strangely over-dressed for the season, although he didn't look cold, pale skin yet his hair was one of the darkest shades, the same for most of his clothing. Male students don't usually have their hair grown out either, but by the way one covered his eye, he took that he was a stereotypical punk or emo kid.

But it did make sense. Anyone would say that.

He did, however, not have a creepy face, or something that would call out as danger. He looked more like a person who was forced to do a lot of things but truly would never do them had the circumstances been different.

Well that was too observant to be seeing on someone who's.. fainted comically. It was only because he led him on a nearby couch that he was making these observations.

"College kids really are.. healthy" he lied to himself, looking at the ID hanging by his lanyard. "Maybe I should give Kyouya a call till then, can't leave you hanging here after hurting you eh" still speaking to himself, in a friendly matter, he tapped him as he spoke. To this stranger even, he honestly looked like a corpse.

makes sense, that's what his name would translate to. The question is, which mother would name their child a corpse? It's a bit saddening when looked at sometimes.

He sat on the arm of the couch and began to dial a number on his phone. At that time Rokudou stirred, opening his eyes to look where he was resting at.

Was that the person he bumped with before? He sat up to take a closer look. Although it's been around almost a week since he was hurt, it still hurt him to move too much.

This man had to be old as Hibari, around his twenties or later, but oh did it not count out the fact that he was gorgeous like a strawberry. How in the name of life did he bump into someone as charming as he and not apologize for doing so?

And oh goodness, that smile that the man had while he chatted on the phone, a melodious voice as he laughed and then apologized. Rokudou felt inferior to this disgustingly charming guy.

Though it appeared whoever was calling him was done with his talks, considering he kept repeating, laughing and choking on his words.

The man was _cute_.

Cute as if you would want to squish him all day long and he would just laugh.

Maybe it was just his clothes that made him look like that though.

Rokudou sat up and watched. This man certainly wasn't as graceful nor elegant as he was, but he sure was a good contrast to Hibari who was stiff and always had a stern look as if everyday was a bad day to him.  
He was bright like the sun.

That sort of cliche. Sadly Rokudou found himself looking into the cliche.

Hibari was dark as the moon, and this guy was bright like the sun.

Now why was he thinking of Hibari of all people? Because he heard the said man laugh out his name and speak again. Not only that, he called him _Kyouya_, just Kyouya. Not Hibari, not Hibari Kyouya.

Just Kyouya.

It should've hurt him to hear that from him, and it did. As out as it may have sounded, he began to already envy this man. They must've been pretty close.

Real close to be saying their names so freely.

"Yeah, sorry Kyouya, I'm waiting till this little student wakes.. up" he said, glancing to the side to seeing Rokudou watching him, observing. He smiled brightly at him, but a sweatdrop rolling down told him he was nervous to see a defined and concentrated gaze at him.

Or maybe it was because he was able to see his other eye that he tried covering so much.

"Oh! He's awake, talk to you soon eh? Bye~" he waved as he hung up, itching his light hair. He was a definition of honey, a light and thick mixture. he probably was literally sweet if you bit into him.

"Hey~ You alright?" he raised a hand to wave at him "You looked like I killed you, and I wanted to apologize for that" the blue head continued to stare at him

"Tranced by my looks? I get that a lot" he flipped his one sided hair, which made Rokudou smile, lowering his eyes "Nah, just zoning out here" he covered his mouth that was beginning to yawn "Sorry I bumped into you" he said after, quickly getting himself off the chair before he got too comfortable.

The man looked down on him. Well not because of his height being taller than the student, but _lower_, seeing his shirt wrinkling itself to give himself more of a healthier look, but it was just air on most of it. He poked at it and laughed, seeing Rokudou immediately gave him a glare, almost shouting "HEY" at him, but the embarrassment to him was stopping him, clenching his teeth instead.

"You're really small for a student in college" he really was 1) tired of that comment, and 2) tired of being played around with by these happy-go-lucky people.

"I just prefer those sizes!" he pulled his coat closer, then smiling troubled. "But anyway, you look fine so I'll go back to my room. Sorry for bumping into you" he shrugged him away by proceeding to walk off, had the older man not grab his wrist.

"Mukuro, you don't just leave someone hanging when they're chatting, you know~?" Rokudou's glare came back at him, how did he know who he was. What a creep. "Cavallone" he stopped glaring

"Cavallone Dino is my name" the flamboyant male said "Yours?" bringing a hand over to Rokudou's face as a gesture

For a strange reason, he stayed quiet. He just couldn't feel the necessity of talking to this person now and seriously wanted to take off to his room and probably sleep for days.

Cavallone knew he wasn't going to get a reply, considering he already knew, but to play with things, he looked at the ID card and smiled "Nice to finally meet you, Mukuro"

..finally?

"I heard things about you by my little cousin" Rokudou opened his mouth to ask 'who?' but he ended up not saying a word

Was Hibari his cousin that he was referring to? "Thanks for helping him" no it was someone else.

"Though I'm sorry to say, but _your days of hiding in school, is up_" the kind smile turned more melancholic, and Rokudou froze at each comment he was giving. Helping out someone.. hiding as an assassin..

and then

"**I'm not here to kill anyone!**" he suddenly shook out, yelling as loud as he could've to get his point across. His face was red from the outburst and he looked worried. Who wouldn't have been when they are being cornered like a rat. He bit his lip at the other man's surprise but continued

"Can't I just get a.. an education?" he almost swore for one of the first times as he shouted as carefully as he could before trying to run off by wriggling his wrist free.

"Besides I have special permission from the Headmaster, now let me go!" when he managed to get his hand free, he pulled out a letter with a stamp from the Headmaster Sawada, or rather, in a sense, president of the college.

Cavallone smiled bitterly, as Rokudou then ran with the letter. "I took a joke too far eh."

-ooo-

Geez those two really are cousins, both are _annoying as hell at a first glance_, Rokudou concluded.

When he got to his room, he waved open his window, throwing his arms on the windowsil then calling "Misteeeeeeeeer" so get Hibari to look at his window

"What're you up to" he didn't ask, but said it as a statement. He was still flabberghasted about earlier today, as not only did Rokudou have someone who could make such terrible jokes like that, he had a recent call from someone he thought forgot about him.

Hibari never wanted to see that man again. Not like they had anything together, just they were partners in crime and he hated that man, dreaded him. He was loud and annoying! All he just did was bark and no bite.

Annoyed Hibari to no end.

"Where's your boyfriend?" he mockingly asked, glaring at the teenager.

"Why? My boyfriend is right heree~" he sang, moving his arm out of the window as to point at Hibari. "My cute as hell boyfriend is right here" his hand pointed then, then waved around up and down

"Yes, that cute, jealous, and lovingly possessive man right there" he looked like he was going to cry, but it was probably because he was shouting a lot for today, not that Hibari knew of it.

Hibari thought Rokudou was being harrassed.

And he felt a bit embarrassed. Rokudou caught onto that by the avert of his gaze and the teeth tightly clenching itself.

"just to let you know _kufufufu~_ my boyfriend is the most cutest thing I've ever seen" he joked, although he did mean it, but the tone of his voice spoke jokes and teases.

Hibari looked at him then, and smiled "Keep your word when you get screwed senselessly" with that, Rokudou stopped momentarily, his cheeks flushing a bit red by the thought of that, but then he quickly shrugged it off

"Don't be absurd~" he waved.

Right, that Cavallone dude might be coming along Hibari's way as his _real_ boyfriend. Without himself noticing, his smile and his jolly attitude left him and was replaced with an empty stare as he moved away from the window sil, avoiding Hibari's glance who looked confused at the sudden dejection that was coming from the strangely cheerful Rokudou.

"Oi, who's in there" he now got off his seat and is directly looking out of the window "Messa.. nevermind he doesn't have a phone now" at the same time he received a call from Giotto

"Sorry have to pick up" he quickly muttered, still looking at the window Rokudou inched away from.

_What happened?_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Line~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hibari said he probably should give a few days of observation before he could jump to conclusions about Rokudou's behaviour change, that dejected look he had before moving to the side of the window, not visible to his eyes.

The call he received from Giotto also told him that he was concerned already, saying that Rokudou wasn't with them and was giving a tour to a pretty "strange", quoting because Giotto doesn't use words that could insult, he did mean strange though. Peculiar. Odd.

Okay, he used "new". Giving the new guy a tour was what he told him. He remembered witnessing it; Rokudou looked ready to fall over and Byakuran was just as opposing and bright than him. It looked fun to be toured for some reason, but it was like when he was giving Rokudou a tour the first time he stepped in the college.

Now he wasn't sure if Giotto was just growing to become more ruder than he was once, though he did know that he asking to be proved wrong about the stranger. You can't just frame someone on just day one really.

But even he had a hard time saying he was innocent upon first glance. Although Rokudou gave him a similar reaction, the same time he looked incredibly honest, like a lost child who wanted to find someone to hold on to.

Maybe it was because he spent too much time with him.

As always, someone had to interrupt his thoughts with an entrance and a trip on the way. His eyes lowered at the sound of his voice as he promptly let the door lock itself.

Not today was he going to deal with him. Nope.

Though he did need to leave the office if he was planning on going home soon, considering the place is not open 24/7, unfortunately.

Nah, it's not breaking a rule, it's just guarding the place. Yes, guarding. Not breaking a rule.

-ooo-

Lucky for Hibari, he didn't have to deal with the Cavallone that night as he got back to his workstation. He looked out at the window, since today was considered Rokudou's holiday due to it being one of those weekdays that are.

It wasn't too much of an early time for someone like Rokudou to wake up, rather he might've been awake this whole time.

Seeing that he wasn't there, he knocked on his own window, hoping he could probably get him to notice, but he didn't seem to notice anything. Unbeknownst to him, Rokudou actually glanced over and smiled at him, opening the window before leaving it.

He was trying to smile the brightest he could considering his heart was almost going out when he noticed it wasn't he who tried to bug Hibari, it was Hibari trying to bug himself with Rokudou.

And once again, holding the idea that he is adorable, he welcomingly opened the window before sitting down below the windowsil.

And unbeknownst to Hibari, Rokudou was actually not feeling well the reason why he wasn't responding to him. Shaking and shivering underneath the windowsil, his face was slightly red due to the difficulty and his eyes were forcing itself shut.

Though, beknownst to Hibari, was that he had a gut feeling that Rokudou wasn't alright, but he wasn't the right person to be talking around with. He wasn't a conversationalist, he was more of the people who believe in survival of the fittest; if Rokudou can't stand small things, he's a weakling.

That line said to himself did feel like it was tearing at him. A heart he didn't know he had, was in pain talking about death of someone "dear" to him. The bull that weak people say about friendship and love, that crap was getting to him surprisingly. It knawed at him relentlessly.

And speak of the devil, even he had people he wanted to avoid, so he told Alaude to put a warning in his room so that no one could appear, if that was possible.

Alaude did question him about it, asking to specify a reason as to why he is making a strange measure of keeping everyone out of his room, to which he replied to him that it was to avoid a certain annoyance.

As an innocent assumption, he thought maybe Rokudou was annoying him, that little student who always seemed to chat with him when he had the freetime. Then again.. Hibari was giving that kid extra help, so it couldn't have been him.

Maybe a new annoying visitor, so he allowed it, unless someone came with proper ID or state the emergency of it.

~In class~

Rokudou was with Giotto and the group again, considering those were the friends in the "workplace" called College. He was to admit it though, he liked their company, it was definitely better than company with anyone else.

Like the stupid white haired man or that fabulously annoying blond guy he met just the day before. He made Giotto do the liberty of giving him information on that blond, to which lucky for being friends with the nephew of the headmaster or the President, he was able to receive quite a bit of information.

Dino Cavallone, 29 years old, born February 4, a leader of his own mafia-esque agency. Overall.. an idiot.

Not to be offensive, but he clearly relied on his team to do basic things, for example walking. Formidably the winner of the infamous carelessness contest.

But enough of that man, he still wasn't feeling well from a few hours ago considering he couldn't rest when he knew he would have to go to class. He couldn't think of sitting with Hibari for today when he thought about how the other man has that manure-producing horse with him.

Though he did feel awful. he even had to put a bit of something to conceal the idea that he was actually ill.

And as clever as Giotto sounds, he knew of that, but he didn't butt in knowing that the other may not like that. It was only the idea he respected the other's choices even if disapproved of it.

Just today happened to be a drama club meeting, and because of Kurokawa who was one of the script writers, most of their group supported her by joining it, not necessarily taking part of it, but when she needed them they were always there.

Today they had to be like highschool kids; preparing for a play. Knowing Kurokawa, she always wrote about twists and ends on the story, and knowing that Rokudou was a friend of hers, it might have only increased the macabre element. Such as having the mother kill their daughter simply because of the idea that the queen had a well-masked disapproval of the neighbour despite always helping them out.

The Princess didn't like them, unlike the mother who was kind to them. The daughter, the elegant princess, had a definite cold demeanor towards them, only accepting them around when she was with her knight. She was expressionless and the pure definition of grace, just as how the Queen was a definition of kindness, and a pure beautiful soul.

It was hard for others to tell that it was her who was the most insane person around, hated everyone more than anything else, even more than the Princess herself. She was uncontrollable, but yet so behaved it was hard to tell.

The princess wanted to help her out, seeing as she was the only one who noticed the twist in behaviour between the two personalities of the beautiful woman. The Prince was a sore loonie who liked the Princess for her coldness but most of the time was rude to her and picked on her.  
Rude as in teasing.

The Queen snapped entirely when she saw the Princess was being straddled by the Prince. The Queen knew that the Princess dreaded the man, so she was about to show her true colours and murder the awful prince but then the princess intervened, for once in her life showing true emotion of fear, crying to her mother that although she would love for everyone to be killed there, she wouldn't want it to be her mother who has to stain her hands for the young helpless princess.

The Prince had no idea what was going on, but that was because when the Princess intervened, the knight had taken it upon himself for the Princess' protection, to kill the Prince. Had the Prince survived, the kingdom would've been in trouble, considering the King was already dead and more trouble would arise than it already had.

So if there was a moment to rephrase it, the queen didn't murder her daughter, but rather it was the daughter who used the blade in her mother's arms and moved her arm to stab her, not because she was necesasrily in love with the prince, but it was to say that both died together for the countries, although the princess hated him.

There were forged documents saying that like Romeo and Juliet, the Prince and the Princess died for their Kingdom's protection, but slowly the Queen of the Princess' Kingdom died, out of illness and the knight ascended himself to the throne because the lack of heirs and he was available.

Everyone thought that was the end of the story. But in an epilogue they found that it was the knight who then began to let the strings loose and cause a war over the kingdoms.

The best, or worst part was.. he succeeded.

That was a bit of a summary of what Rokudou and Kurokawa had manuscripted. Though Rokudou felt like punching someone when he noticed who was playing what..

Rokudou thought Sasagawa would've been the princess considering she was an all around beauty, but it seemed like Kurokawa had some teasings going on here, so he got back with her by making her the queen, to which she couldn't approve of, considering she would say she fits a more evil and gloomier role, rather than the beautiful queen.

It wasn't needed to be disclosed as to who was playing what afterwards.

the only problem was, there was more of a reason for Byakuran to bug him, and more time for Giotto to try and step in everytime.

_How troublesome._

-ooo-

Considering Rokudou is the easiest person to have, for some reason, his dorm room unlocked, and on top of that his window was open, it was easy to just sneak in.

Hibari wasn't the kind of person who would just jump in someone's room though. But this was possibly one of the only times he told himself that he will, considering earlier in the morning Rokudou wasn't feeling well, so he suspected that something was going to happen when he comes back.

He had also taken the liberty to buy him a phone, with him handling the bill or whatever he needed to. He did, again, also need to speak to Rokudou about "work" that he was going to have assigned to.  
This was why he was sitting in here. It wasn't like he was worried or anything, nothing of the sort!

Setlling himself down, he waited for Rokudou to step in, which he was in small steps, peeking in because he saw the door was open and he sensed someone in there.

He was surprised to see Hibari in his room, considering it was always he who went to him rather than the other way around. Geez, the morning was strange because he approached him at that time, now he was doing the same again?

He casually dropped his bag on the bed and sat, leaning against the wall. "Heheh, I'm so lucky to have a lovely office worker come in my room" he joked, before looking at him with a smile "What's up?"

Hibari looked at the floor, before looking at him calmly "Let's talk" he said, seeing as Rokudou tensed slightly, as he adjusted his knees near his chest and smiled again

"About?"

It looked like Hibari was thinking, considering he doesn't talk all too much "Work.. and" he was almost saying _us_, but by the look of things, Rokudou already seemed to have heard the thing he didn't mention.

It began like if he was giving instructions "Your phone was broken, I bought a new one" he passed it over to him. It also had a case on it which was neat considering phones don't come with it. "My number is in there. Register yours"  
Rokudou looked like a child taking instructions from an adult. He noted the number on one of the books he had taken out of his bag, "You'll have to add the others, but later" geez, if Hibari wanted to, he should've been a teacher. Rokudou would listen intently to everything he would be saying.

"Next is.. where you work" after writing them down, he looked back at the adult again, who looked straight at him "You can keep your things, but you don't need to do it again" if he was being any more questionable, it was the trident he was talking about. Basically saying he doesn't need to hurt himself to hurt others again.

"Just attend class" that was the sort of 'work' he could only give right now, considering he can't open an office position when he is just a worker himself, on the contrary he could do other work too, but it would cause stress to the young student, once again, he still has a long year to go through.

His class only had a few weeks more as the semester was ending, that meant whoever were coming in late, probably were in different curriculum, or he just transferred that class.

This was the second semester after all, even though it didn't feel like that long time passed. It was pretty long, maybe 5 months already.

Then again, timing wasn't really at it's best here, but if there was a summary, it was that Rokudou met him on his 'first day', but Hibari wasn't all that new at that time, the next few weeks he began to chat across the window.  
The other month later he began to resort to texting the adult, then another month, he was let into Hibari's house and was in that 'situation' where he was in the hospital, then a week or two now.

Time really flew.

The point was.. Rokudou only had another year left for school, and at the moment Winter holidays were coming. The issue that sometimes dormitories are closed for the semester until the new one comes and he might need to register for it again.

"They might not let you live here, so you'll live with me" Rokudou stopped in his tracks. "Your friends can come too, as long as they don't cause trouble" the friends as in Dokuro and the others. Rokudou didn't even know if they were even alive at the moment because of the miscommunication around.

"And lastly.." Hibari paused to take a deep breath. Rokudou had to sort the family thoughts away and try looking back at him. Here it was coming.

Hibari was going to say that they are breaking it off, even though a few days ago he was just saying that Hibari was his cute boyfriend.

That Cavallone man was back, so it must've meant that he was going back with him.

Hibari stopped and noticed Rokudou's eyes were watering slightly. Again, it must've been because he was sick. He forgot that apparently.

"You're not leaving me that easily" he said in a rather angered tone. Considering he was cutely jealous of the white haired man himself, just like how Rokudou was envious of the blond man.

But it was nice how he didn't need to continue, seeing that it was already having an effect on the blue head.

"I don't care if you don't love me" he stood up, walking over to Rokudou who's face was growing a smile. He shouldn't admit it, but he must've liked where it was going.

"I don't even care if you start regretting being with me" Rokudou now just waited, he wanted the man to stop pausing and continue. He would rather be beaten like a bad dog than wait for his words to come.

Rokudou's hands were inviting, seeing as when Hibari was walking over to him, he stretched them out to reach for him. Hibari noticed it with a huff, but liked it himself. It was good that he was still young and a bit dumb that he wouldn't have to convine the boy again and again about what he once said before.

Considering all the previous words he spoken to him were spiralling back into Rokudou's mind. It was making him happier by the second passing.

Rokudou shifted his position to sit on his knees, bringing the adult to him.  
"You're mine, you got that?" Hibari's arms came around to confirm, taking the younger man into his embrace. If anything it was purely warm, a welcoming warmth.

As he was being embraced, his mind wandered.

As much as he was happy about this one thing, it was entirely selfish. How could he not think about the others who are still in positions that are almost unimagineable. He can't just abandon his job just now and let them know saying 'hey I'm done with work, i got a job'

They're no fool. They knew exactly where things were, and most likely they will start murdering everyone who was in the vicinity to get Rokudou to work with them again, considering Rokudou is not someone who should be known to the public. He could still go to prison for countless charges of murder and he would not be able to defend himself at all.

Had he abandon his friends, that would mean all that he was working for would go to a waste. He couldn't allow it.

There was no chance possibility for him to just let the work aside and let Hibari do everything, if he wants Hibari's help, he would need to get rid of the workplace he currently is in, and then go elsewhere.

But everyone knows that going against the Vendicare corporation is impossible. They were simply too strong and under authority they were like heroes who keep the evil experiments away from the inskirts of the world.

Besides, Rokudou should be thankful they had not murdered him _yet,_ considering he hasn't done a thing in a week or two, and usually these are daily tasks. Who knows they might've already murdered everyone else.

Hibari could fight, as he was told, and he knew Giotto had connections, more importantly his uncle, the president of the college, knew authorities, if Rokudou could have people to peacefully help him out of this, it would be most beneficial.

Except word about him would be publicized. The only problem is that going to college kind of already publicizes people.

Sawada must've already knew about him, which was why the letter signed by him comes to play.

But things are not that easy, he couldn't let himself be distracted by people and his own desires as of right now. It wasn't right at all, considering he was working on this for so long, why on earth would he have it abandoned.

Maybe he should work as a government dog.

That would be better..

No, Vendicare _were_ already that. They were the ones no one would ever know about, and if Rokudou spreads word of them, he'd personally be in trouble for whatever may occur.

The only flaw in the plan making.

Wait wait wait.. If he was already working in the sidelines of the government, why would they get him in trouble then? He's already been there for so long, the government practically help him out.

Now that didn't make any more sense.

Though providence always provides.. as stated before. If he was known in the public, he would be sent to some mental facility, or worse, an experimental facility. He'd be behind syringes again as he once was.

More than anything, he didn't want to be there again.

Hibari did notice that Rokudou's mind was in the haze at the moment, which was why none of the words he was saying as of right now was going into his brain.

He held him closer if he could've.

He hated the boy for making him have these feelings, but he didn't think it would make him feel whole.

As if it was on cue, Rokudou's hands clenched around his shoulders, seemed like he didn't want to let go himself.

Holding on as if it was his only source of life. He decided to go back on topic "What about that Cavallone man?" he then rubbed his head on his shoulder, not able to look at him as he asked. He knew it was petty to ask about something that was already answered.

"That man can go to hell" Rokudou was surprised he didn't say that weird 'bite you to death' quote, but it sure sounded funny when he said 'go to hell', "And you? What of that bleached man?"

"_kufufu~_ _That man.. can go to hell_" he then rephrased what he was told, snickering a bit to himself then relaxing against Hibari's gentle self. "We're at an agreement?" he then asked, looking at the younger male who still hiding his face, but smiling kindly nonetheless.

"Yeah, we are"

because time would not need to tell anymore.

Their thoughts reverberated at the same thought, but the only problem would be.. how to deal with them.

Rokudou was more concerned about Hibari, and Hibari.. well he was concerned about Rokudou.

It shouldn't matter too much, but if it caused harm, that would be truly troublesome to deal with.

That was the only idea.

They belonged with each other, and as long as the thought lingered, that's all what mattered most.

-ooo-

Now although it was nice and cute about the idea that the two had settled their "hearts" somewhere. This did not mean that whenever Hibari saw Byakuran, or Rokudou saw Cavallone, they were alright with it.

Hibari almost goes into a complete attack mode because Rokudou has this play he has to rehearse with the snow haired man, and it gets difficult for Rokudou to stop him.

And at the sight of Cavallone, who stepped into class stating that he was one of their new instructors, Rokudou shouted;

**"THAT MAN IS NOT A TEACHER HE'S LYING!"**

And because it was rare for Rokudou to make such claims, it was easier for him to receive support from everyone and thence kick him out.

The truth was, he really wasn't a teacher!

Such as the life between the two. Always bickering when it came to the two even though they knew nothing can change their minds.

* * *

_**Sorry, I was aiming for a 10,000+ words chapter, but I cut off a lot of dialogue and it became more condensed :x**_  
_**Then again, that was only because it might happen later.**_

_**As always, any sort of feedback is greatly appreciated~**_


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